Hey, shills, are you still calling this 3-D chess?

It looks more like a trade war with China every day, and now it may have political implications:

President Trump may insist—as he did on Twitter Wednesday morning—“We are not in a trade war with China,” but the $50 billion in tariffs his administration proposes putting on Chinese goods has already spooked markets, with a broad sell-off hitting U.S. stocks. The damage could also extend to the U.S. midterm elections. 

China on Wednesday said it would issue 25 percent retaliatory levies on roughly $50 billion of U.S. imports, including soybeans, cars, chemicals and aircraft. These levies appear to be targeted at states, particularly in the Midwest, where Trump’s support is strongest. But, crucially, many of these states also have pivotal Senate and gubernatorial races in November. The economic blow from new tariffs could upend many of these races, potentially shifting control of statehouses and the U.S. Senate to Democrats.

Then there's the Syria situation. In recent days, we've seen the VSG's position shift from "we're getting out very soon" to playing coy with Saudi Arabia, claiming he told that country we might consider staying if the Saudis paid for it. What does he think the US military is, a mercenary force? Plus, neither the official records of his most recent conversations with King Salman bid Abdulazziz Al Saud nor with Crown Prince  Muhammed Bin Salman include any mention of such a proposal. Now he's been persuaded by advisors to keep troops in Syria.

It's safe to conclude that there is no coherent Syria policy.

Then there's the bad-mouthing of a private company, Amazon. The first thing to say, obviously, is that it is egregiously out of place for the highest public official in the land to be singling a particular business organization out. Then there is the easy refutability of the points Trump is making about Amazon. Then there is the hit Amazon's stock has taken as a result. A lot of mutual funds in this country have some Amazon stock in them. (What kind of squeeze was put on Larry Kudlow to get him to back the VSG up on this?) Then there's just the sheer pettiness of it.

You know, the pettiness that shows up in the nicknames he bestows to those he wishes to diminish:

A Trump tweet from this morning: “Little Jeff Zuker, whose job is in jeopardy, is not having much fun lately.” Jeff Zucker is the head of CNN. How tall he is, I’m not sure.

Trump likes to say “little” about those he wishes to disparage: “Little Marco,” “Liddle’ Bob Corker,” “Little Adam Schiff.” Big men don’t have to do this. In fact, it makes them little.

And some of his monikers require explanation that, face it, will probably not be offered:

Another Trump tweet from this morning: “Thank you to Rasmussen for the honest polling. Just hit 50%, which is higher than Cheatin’ Obama at the same time in his Administration.”

“Cheatin’ Obama”? Does that refer to his marital life? Plus, do you remember how conservatives and Republicans knocked President Obama for slighting his predecessor, time after time?

Indeed. Just what did the Most Equal Comrade cheat at?

No, the shills were wrong, and those of us whom the shills to this day insist on calling NeverTrumpers were absolutely correct. The guy has no consistent set of core principles, no coherent worldview that drives his policy formulation.

Yeah, yeah, we'll applaud the good moves. But this is a clown show most of which  cannot be defended.