Despite all the bluster from Trump, his world is falling apart.<\/p>\n
According to reports from the past day, 76% of Canadians support Mark Carney\u2019s position of withdrawing from trade talks with Trump, meaning the country must bear the cost of US tariffs through reduced exports, while being willing to pay the price of additional tariffs on US imports.<\/p>\n
Like Iranians, Canadians are refusing to bow to pressure from Trump.<\/p>\n
And talking of Iran, although it is apparent that the domestic economy there is suffering considerable stress, as are the people of the country, the likelihood that Trump\u2019s latest economic threats, in the form of additional sanctions on countries that trade with Iran and banks that facilitate that process, will have much impact is low. The US regime (appropriately described) is still presuming that the USA holds all the trump cards (pun intended, or not). It does not.<\/p>\n
That is because China is all too willing to step into US shoes as the major Gulf power.<\/p>\n
It will also happily ignore trading oil in dollars and buy Iranian oil nonetheless.<\/p>\n
It will also be delighted to see the loss of US influence in the area, where it is thought that at least 15 US military bases are no longer viable, either because they are too close to Iran to be entirely secure, or because their hosts are unwilling to commit to them in the long term as they recognise the shifting power in the region.<\/p>\n
And that shift is clearly indicated by the withdrawal of the US\u2019s largest aircraft carrier from the Gulf, where reprovisioning it has become immensely difficult because the facilities to do so are no longer sustainable. The impact on the ship's operational capacity has been extraordinary, according to many reports emanating from the USA.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, for all the stress that has been created within the country, and I\u2019m quite sure that has been real, Iran is holding out, as I suspect Canada will.<\/p>\n
And where is the price of all this being seen? As I noted last night<\/a> in a short post here, the price of this war is being paid within the USA.<\/p>\n Fuel and fertiliser shortages, and resulting price spikes, are developing, as I suggested that they would many months ago.<\/p>\n And Trump might like to claim that the US oil industry is winning from this conflict, but it cannot deliver the oil that the US economy or the world needs. Oil is not a single commodity, as the US consumer is now learning.<\/p>\n What is the effect? That is seen in Trump\u2019s poll ratings and in the potential results of the US midterm elections, where it is possible that the Republicans will have a very rude awakening. According to The Economist<\/a>, Trump's net approval rating is -26, down 0.3 points since last week, with 35% approval, 61% disapproval, and 5% not sure, which in itself is an astonishingly low figure.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So, is Trumpworld, the glittering creation that only exists in the minds of true MAGA devotees, falling apart? It would seem so. Fascism does not survive contact with the population, it would seem. A lot of people in the UK\u00a0 should take note.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"