There are all kinds of questions about what, exactly, Donald Trump intends to do with his so-called Board of Peace, but the president is apparently looking for countries to become members of said board, which will ostensibly have something to do with the future of Gaza.
The Republican’s pitch is, however, facing some predictable international skepticism, even as he seems to believe he can blackmail some U.S. allies into participating in the endeavor. The New York Times reported:
President Trump threatened on Monday to impose 200 percent tariffs on French wine, including Champagne, if President Emmanuel Macron of France declined to join his proposed ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza.
France was among the countries the Trump administration invited last week to join the body, which Mr. Trump has said he plans to lead to oversee the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and supervise the rebuilding of Gaza.
During a brief Q&A with reporters on Monday night, Trump initially acknowledged that he’d invited Vladimir Putin to join the “peace” panel, which seemed utterly indefensible given the Russian leader’s obvious rejection of peace in Ukraine. Soon after, a reporter asked the American president if he had a reaction to the French president saying he doesn’t intend to be part of the endeavor.
“Oh, did he say that?” Trump replied, apparently unaware of comments that Macron had made 12 hours earlier. After suggesting that “nobody wants” Macron to be a part of the panel that Trump had invited him to join, the Republican added, “What I’ll do is, if they feel, like, hostile, I’ll put a 200% tariff on his wines and champagnes — and he’ll join.”
I have no idea whether or when Trump might follow through on such an idea, but the comment underscored a larger point that the White House has been generally reluctant to acknowledge: The entire foundation of the president’s tariff strategy is rooted in an “emergency” that doesn’t exist.
The administration and its lawyers have spent months arguing that the president must have unilateral power to impose arbitrary tariffs on U.S. trade partners — without congressional approval — in response to “emergency” conditions that necessitate dramatic action.
Except, with a Supreme Court due to rule on Trump’s trade policy any day, Trump keeps giving away the game. Brazil prosecuted a politician allied with Trump? Tariffs. European countries aren’t on board with his Greenland crusade? Tariffs. Macron isn’t interested in Trump’s “Board of Peace”? Tariffs.
The “emergency” pretense is gone (to the extent that it ever existed in the first place). If the justices notice this and rule against the White House, Trump will have no one to blame but himself.
