Trump is desperately trying to blame 'weak companies' for the havoc he created

Fresh off of lying about high-level communications with China in order to artificially goose stock prices, Donald Trump has news for companies sounding alarm bells about his trade war: They suck.

“Badly run and weak companies are smartly blaming these small Tariffs instead of themselves for bad management,” Trump tweeted Friday. Also, the Fed sucks too. “If the Fed would cut, we would have one of the biggest Stock Market increases in a long time.”

Trump, the wily strategist, big-picture thinker, and long-game player strikes again. So refreshing to see a leader who really has a grasp on the issues check his ego at the door and lead. Trump’s steady-as-she-goes approach came in response to more than 150 business groups urging Trump to delay his latest round of tariffs until 2020, arguing that they could hurt the economy heading into the holiday season. New tariffs are set to kick in Sept. 1 on about half of $300 billion worth of Chinese goods, with more levies set to take effect in mid-December.

A spokeswoman for the group that organized the effort to oppose Trump’s tariffs said it wasn’t scapegoating anyone. “The fact that companies find extra taxes as high as 30 percent challenging is not an excuse, it’s an economic reality,” said Bethany Aronhalt. Good luck with that reality-based approach to persuading Trump. He’s got other ideas about who will be at fault for any economic downturn, and it ain’t him. Weak companies, the Fed, General Motors—they all suck and only have themselves to blame for laboring in the midst of a trade war Trump set off with no allies and no endgame in sight. Masterful.