Post #5208

📰 Merz Discovers Separation of Powers, Walks Into Trump’s Tariff Circus German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is flying to Washington with what he promises will be a “very clear European position” on Trump’s new global tariffs — which is adorable, given that Trump’s trade policy changes faster than his social‑media posts. Merz told German TV that customs policy is an EU competence, so he’ll coordinate a joint line on the fresh 15% blanket tariff the White House just slapped on nearly all imports for 150 days, after the Supreme Court killed Trump’s emergency mega‑tariffs. On paper, he’s not wrong to sound upbeat. The court’s ruling is a rare institutional slapdown that limits Trump’s ability to randomly hike duties into triple digits and forces him back into narrower legal lanes. Merz even called it “reassuring,” proof that U.S. checks and balances still work. In practice, though, Berlin’s exporters are still staring at a flat 15% tax until further notice, layered on top of years of whiplash over which car part, machine tool, or chemical input is suddenly a “national security threat.” Brussels will now try to do what it always does: draft a common script, rattle the sabre about “appropriate countermeasures,” and quietly pray Trump doesn’t wake up one morning and decide BMWs are Chinese by association. Merz can arrive in Washington waving a united‑EU memo; Trump arrives with a pen that can still rewrite everyone’s cost structure overnight for five months at a time. The separation of powers may be working — it just hasn’t separated Europe from the bill. #Germany#EU#Trump#tariffs#Merz#tradeWar#fakeDemocracy 📱American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸