It’s catchy in the same way “Mexicans will pay for the wall”, “China will eat the tariffs”, “Lock her up” is catchy; all catchy slogans but also nonsense. And, to bring it back to Krugman, Trump’s enablers let it slide because they are not serious people.

>> He's a lot of things but he's not bad at getting what he values; he is in fact perhaps the most successful American ever in those terms.

Nonsense. He’s bankrupted casinos. He lost his first reelection bid. He started on third base and ended up back at first.

>> If you care about America it is incredibly short sighted to think he's dumb.

He IS that dumb. He really doesn’t understand how tariffs/trade balance works. But his enablers have let him run riot. Biden was old. Reagan had mental issues. But their teams had firm hands on the steering wheel. That’s a serious country with some checks and balances. Trump admin is trying to revoke all that