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At this point people should really understand how to read a statement from Trump. It actually is important to read all the words. “Hereby ordered to immediatel
by zaroth 7y ago
At this point people should really understand how to read a statement from Trump. It actually is important to read all the words.
“Hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative” does not mean he is trying to say companies must cease importing from China, even if that’s what the headline will read tomorrow.
It simply says that companies need to start looking for alternatives to China.
Trump is saying it’s going to get increasingly expensive to import all our stuff from China going forward.
Can he make things increasingly expensive to import from China? As long as he’s President, yes he can.
- markbnj 7y agoIn what world does "hereby ordered" typically precede a bit of friendly advice? "All my relatives are hereby ordered to depart a day early for the annual Christmas gathering, as storms are predicted for the I-80 corridor."
- zaroth 7y agoIt’s not friendly advice, that’s the point! Businesses don’t typically like it very much when someone makes their supply lines double-digit more expensive overnight. He’s putting companies on notice. He’s doing it with language which will get the statement widely reported (and unfortunately mis-reported). But carefully reading what he is actually saying, you can see he’s not actually ordering anything. That’s the point. In your hypothetical example you would need to change two things. One, it would read “All my relatives are hereby ordered to starting looking at flights a day early...” And two, you would have to be God, because in that example you would be the one controlling the weather.
- AnimalMuppet 7y agoReading all the words is a good idea. But even after doing so, you're left with one big problem: He does not have the authority to order that.