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“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

KRUGGEL: Don't cheer, this is just how their system works: He's leveling tariffs


I think a lot of people are cheering right now or at least feeling really good that maybe we just avoided tariffs and it was all bluster. You might even think he's rethinking the whole thing.

Sadly, that is not the case.

The United States is a nation with a bureaucracy unlike no other. They have offices for offices. They have oversight offices for oversight offices and committees to review both of those. The system is driven by some of the most intricately written laws in the world. Americans have no shortage of lawyers.

Donald Trump could have levied tariffs today, in theory. But those would have been challenged in court. He knows that.

Today his administration has tasked the required offices to investigate the situation and prepare a response. Trump has telegraphed what he expects them to report back and what recommendations to issue.

You might be thinking well this is all for show! It is.

A lot of what governments do is to dot the I's and cross the T's today. They have to satisfy their own laws to avoid getting tied up in their own courts. Even Donald Trump with Republican judges all over the place knows the courts still have to intervene and rule on the law. Even if he were on solid legal footing the courts still have to do their thing and courts are not fast.


What is going to happen?

Now that the appropriate offices have been engaged, or very soon will be, they will be given what amounts to mandate letters to come up with those those predetermined conclusions and recommendations.
Usually this kind of thing is over a period of 30, 90, or 180 days. That's a month, a fiscal quarter, or six months. I'm going to say we'll be looking at the 90 day process.

At that point they'll report back to the President as reports bubble up from the researchers to the bureaucrats to senior management to the Cabinet Secretary and finally presented to the President.

Then Donald Trump will have his ducks lined up, all in a row, and he'll be free to act. He won't act immediately. He's going to take a weekend to think about it. These reports always come on a Friday and the President takes the weekend to come to a wise decision.

If you got a good laugh from that, you aren't the only one. He'll levy the tariffs on the following Monday.

In case you missed it, until today, it was just a possibility they would be levied. We now know, they are coming.

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