Benedict Donald sure has a thing about magnets. Remember how he famously said they don't work in water? And so they shouldn't be put on boats? What in the hell does any of it mean? It's hard to know with all those rabid raccoons running around in his brain.
Just a couple of months ago he was at it again, raving about the USS Gerald R. Ford and its electromagnetic aircraft launch system. "They have all magnetic elevators to lift up 25 planes at a time, 20 planes at a time," he burbled. "And instead of using hydraulic, they use magnets. Magnets are going to lift the planes up, and it doesn’t work. And they had billions and billions of dollars of cost overruns."
As with everything Trump says, this is baloney. The aircraft carrier in question cost $13 billion, not $18 billion as Donald claimed. There's no evidence its "magnetic elevators" caused it to go over budget, or even that its launching system is a bust. Maybe Trump just doesn't like ships being named after people who are not him (e.g., Ford, Jimmy Carter, John McCain). But now, magnets have come back to bite him.
Everybody took note on Friday when Trump exempted phones, computers and chips from his so-called "reciprocal" tariffs — Tim Cook evidently called in his Inaugural donation chit. But Donald left the tariffs on China, and guess what? China has quickly retaliated by suspending shipments of magnets that US manufacturers need to make cars, drones, missiles, and robots. Among other things.
"Shipments of the magnets have been halted at many Chinese ports while the Chinese government drafts a new regulatory system," The New York Times reports. "Once in place, the new system could permanently prevent supplies from reaching certain companies, including American military contractors."
Oops! Sounds like your economic boat is sinking, Donald. The problem is, we're all in the damn boat with you. We cats HISS.
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