Lawrence O’Donnell has gone nuclear on the central “lie” in “spoiled brat” President Donald Trump’s tariff warning letters.
During his The Last Word monologue on Monday evening, the veteran MSNBC host brought up the amateurish documents sent to the heads of state of over a dozen countries by the Trump administration.
Trump is attempting to re-negotiate trade deals with the countries, essentially by threatening prospective partners. The president stated that tariffs against recipients of the letters would be reinstated if a trade deal with the U.S. was not negotiated by the deadline, Aug. 1. This is a revised date, delaying the tariff deadline from July 9.
The leaders of Thailand, Cambodia, Serbia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, South Africa, Laos, India, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, and Tunisia all received the threats.
O’Donnell took issue with the format, wording, repetition, and general existence of the letters.
His main issue, though, was the fact that the deadline was “fake.” In fact, the whole charade is artificial, according to O’Donnell.
“It’s all fake. There’s no deadline. It’s a self-imposed landmark in this theatrical show, and that’s where we are,” he raged.
O’Donnell thinks that the recipients are even privy to the fact that it is all a “lie.”
“The letter says we will charge Japan, South Korea, or another country a tariff of only 25 percent on any and all products sent into the United States. And that is a lie. And everyone receiving that letter knows it’s a lie,” he said.
He repeated his assertion that all tariff charges will be passed on to the “people in America who buy that product and bring that product into the country.”
“This is something the entire world knows,” O’Donnell added.
O’Donnell went further, suggesting that no other head of state could get away with what Trump is claiming. “It would be impossible for the president of any other country to say that they are charging the United States of America, or any other country, anything. Their voters would all know they were lying, because no country anywhere in the world has the legal authority to tax any other country, and no country has ever done it,” he explained.
“Tariffs are paid entirely by the country that imposes the tariffs. That is something that Donald Trump has been lying about for his entire political career.”
He said the whole tariff saga is evidence of Trump’s “economic illiteracy.”
“You could say that Donald Trump is off the rails, but I ask, what rails? When did the spoiled brat from Queens ever have any rails at all?” O’Donnell demanded.
“Donald Trump cannot be compared to a derailed train because a train has direction and purpose until it is derailed. Donald Trump has never had that.”
The White House has been contacted for comment.
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