The Donald’s Art Of The Nothingburger

At least the Donald isn’t very picky about his “wins”. There was absolutely no unfair trade problem with the UK in the first place—so it’s not surprising that a vaguely described “deal” was cobbled together by the White House, purportedly representing a first out of the box example of endless trade deal victories to come.

In fact, however, the UK deal is a pure nothingburger which is reminiscent of the Donald’s 2019 “win” via the ballyhooed USMCA deal with Canada and Mexico. Yet as became evident when the US trade deficit of $65 billion with Canada and Mexico combined in 2017 soared to $235 billion by 2024, the entire deal amounted to mainly a name change of the the old NAFTA free trade arrangement, decorated by a couple of minor bells and whistles with respect to labor and environmental standards added.