US President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order on tariffs, in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 2, 2025.
Mr Trump is right about everything. Including the tariffs so many people are up in arms about. Also, when Mr Trump or his government tells you to do something, don’t retaliate, don’t resist, don’t waste time, do it.
The United States deported a Congolese to South Sudan and the government of South Sudan spoke a lot of “englis”, wrote statements in government letterheads with lots of arguments and the conclusion that they would not take the Congolese.
Mr Marco Rubio, former Senator from Florida and now Secretary of State, in one swift brutal move, cancelled US visas for all South Sudanese, and just like that, there wasn’t a tall dark one legally in the US.
How many Congolese are there in South Sudan? What’s one more? The government caved in, eventually, and took the Congolese, but the last time I checked the visas had not been restored.
If Mr Trump says you stand at attention facing the South, don’t ask questions. File out of your huts, stand in a line at attention until you get further instructions.
If Mr Trump deports a blue Martian to your country, you say: “Yes Mr Trump, sir.” And then, when the attention of the media is safely diverted, you tie a rocket to his blue backside and fire the bugger in the general direction of Mars.
If Mr Trump says you do something, you don’t start talking “englis” and writing letterheads. You do it, chap chap.
On this tariff thing, Mr Trump is right, just like on everything else. The US is the world’s biggest market. In 2022, the value of U.S. imports was approximately $3.5 trillion.
This means that the US is engaged in the wholesale of export of jobs to other countries which can manufacture cheaper by exploiting workers and stealing Africa’s raw materials. Americans get cheaper goods but there are countries running up huge trade surpluses against the US and they have come to consider it as something of a right.
In 2003, the United States imported about $152 billion worth of goods from China while exporting around $21 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of approximately $131 billion.
It appears that China’s policy is to sell to the world, but buy nothing in return, apart from unprocessed raw materials and aphrodisiacs. If you turn up with cars in China intending to export them, you will be lucky to be deported without some jail time (I’m exaggerating).
US President Donald Trump delivers remarks on tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 2, 2025.
If you rock up with rhino horn, elephant tusks and the testicles of a Boa Constrictor for aphrodisiac soup, there will be a red carpet laid out to the nearest kitchen. If you also have a pangolin under your arm, they will rename you Mao Zedong.
The Communist mandarins keep a close, obsessive eye on the RMB, occasionally fondling it to keep their exports competitive.
The Chinese system is built for advantage, not fairness. Now if you have been to China, you know that the Chinese have many fine cars of their own and are a mighty tech giant. But there was a time when you could climb into what you were sure was a BMW X5 but the badge was different and name Chinese.
If you asked if it was a BMW, your Chinese friend would explain: “BMW 14 lines in the grill, ours 16. Different car.” In other words, if you changed just one minor detail, you could copy the rest. I don’t want to spend the rest of the afternoon going at the other blocs and countries, but they are only slightly better.
I mean, if you are a Kenyan trying to sell anything other than raw materials, you are dead on arrival in 95 per cent of the markets in the world.
Even South Africa, which is being thwacked possibly courtesy of its most famous export, Elon Musk, refused to buy our wine because it wasn’t made from grapes. Our King Fisher was made from pawpaw, I think. European cars face a 2.5% tariff in the US, US cars 10%, just saying.
Mr Trump had warned that in the short term, there would be a transition. The bottom fell off the stock market, rich boys lost a ton of money but in the long run, Mr Trump has to change the game for the US to survive. America is already $36 trillion in debt. This year, it will spend $6 trillion but has a revenue of $4 trillion.
US President Donald Trump speaks as he attends the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) dinner at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, US, April 8, 2025.
By the end of 2025, the US debt will be $38 trillion because it has to borrow $2 trillion to plug the deficit. He has to cut expenditure, without touching the tax cut for the rich which is due to expire in not too long which is why he had Musk go after waste and welfare.
He needs to increase revenue, and he is getting billions from tariffs daily and making imports expensive, he will make local production attractive once more, which will lead to more wealth and jobs for Americans.
A country can remove people who are illegally within its borders, but the wholescale campaign against immigrants and minorities is bad and counterproductive. America is not Elysium, it trades, makes money and derives power from its relations with the rest of the world. But about tariffs, Mr Trump was right. Again.
