Trump, the Evel Knievel of the World Economy, Is Taking Us Over The Edge.

Donald Trump claims his tariffs are “really big and beautiful.” So is the Grand Canyon when you’re not in a freefall to the bottom.

The best analogy I have heard that describes the menace of Trump’s economic policies on America and the world invokes the iconic quote of the late daredevil Evel Knievel, “Stick with me, and we’ll jump the Grand Canyon.” Reminder: Knievel broke more than 433 bones in his lifetime as he crashed his motorcycles while jumping cars and buses and never successfully jumped the Grand Canyon.

So, think of Donald Trump and his economic policies as taking his followers and the rest of us to the Grand Canyon, telling us it’s “huge,” and it’s “going to be so beautiful” when we get there. How many times did he tell us “tariffs” was the most beautiful word ever as he invoked the highest worldwide tariffs ever? He was Evel Knievel, and we were all, willingly and unwillingly, on his bus as he hit the gas, accelerating up the ramp to jump the biggest canyon ever - the world economy.

“It’s liberation day! Stick with me,” he told us, “There’s going to be some pain, but it’s going to be so beautiful when we get to the other side!”

But as Trump was about to take the world over the edge something happened — he declared a 90-day pause on his tariffs. After waiting for anyone in America — and I mean anyone in America - to stop him. The world stepped in and started to sell America’s Treasury Bonds.

Bonds are a powerful signal of how close we came to flying off a cliff and into the canyon.

As Jim O’Neill, former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and a former UK Treasury minister, put it, “The dramatic rise in 10- and 30-year bond yields, in response to Trump’s audacious ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs and the decline of the US dollar, was a stark reminder – and undoubtedly sent shivers down the spines of anyone around Trump who has experience with financial markets.”

While the pause is currently in place, make no mistake, this is not over.

The world has learned that militarily, Trump’s America is no longer a dependable ally, and now economically, Trump’s America is no longer a dependable trading partner. Trump has started the great unwinding of America’s place in the world, and it’s unlikely to be a beautiful thing as the world adjusts to that reality.

We have been the stabilizing force in the world; Under Donald Trump we have become the great destabilizing force in the world. Once the safe place to park money in times of crisis, the world is starting to look elsewhere as Trump readies to make another attempt to leap the canyon in less than 90 days.

The Republican Party is now completely on board and owns the Trump recession that will surely come.

They are not even listening to billionaires like Ray Dalio who is saying, “I’m worried about something worse than a recession.” His worry? “We are going from multilateralism, which is largely an American world order type of thing, to a unilateral world order in which there’s great conflict.”

This is all being done in our name. We, the American people, have to raise the alarm and put Congress in the hot seat. Congress has to take its constitutional power back and reject Trump’s tariffs and menacing economic policies. We built the world’s strongest economy — not Trump. We have less than 90 days to get every member of Congress to take a stand against Trump’s Tariffs. Do not lose faith in your power as an American to impose your will on those who represent you. “Not in our name” should be the battle cry.

We need to educate our fellow Americans about the stakes. You cannot attack the markets of all the countries of the world across the board and expect those same countries to buy our bonds to finance our debt. It’s why bond yields widened, and the dollar has been declining. The world can shun the dollar and US investment, and there are signs that should cause every American to be concerned.

Jim O’Neill laid out the consequences clearly:

“If the Trump administration remains committed to using blunt tariffs to eliminate imports from China, it will also decimate Chinese bond purchases.”

This economic chaos isn’t over, and none of it was necessary.

Chip manufacturing was already returning to the United States under the Chips Act. COVID had made the dangers and disruption caused by over-dependence on international supply chains so apparent that companies on their own were repositioning manufacturing domestically.

Evel Knievel risked his own neck trying to jump the canyon and didn’t take anyone else along for the ride. Donald Trump is moving at breakneck speed to take us and the world over a cliff and into a canyon far deeper and more dangerous than a recession.

Consumer confidence has declined to its lowest point in history. Americans are spending less and saving more. You should, too. You have enormous power. Use it. Call your representative. Join a protest in your area — get one more friend, one more family member, or one more co-worker to stand up and speak out. Now is not the time to play dead; Now is the time to get loud.

If we, the American people, do not step into the breach and raise our voices to stop him, the rest of the world will do it for us as they lose faith not in him - but in us. They are done with him, but not with us yet.

Stand up America.