Source: The American Prospect
by Harold Meyerson
“While there is nothing fundamentally funny about Donald Trump’s presidency, some of his policies, as Stephen Colbert and others regularly point out, register well above 9 on the Richter scale of ridiculosity. One current example of life under Trump imitating farce is his proposed 39 percent tariffs on Switzerland. The farce I have in mind is the musical comedy Strike Up the Band, with books (it had two versions, one in 1927, one in 1930) by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind (who also wrote the definitive Marx Brothers comedies) and a score by George and Ira Gershwin. It features an American cheese mogul so infuriated by Switzerland’s efforts to block U.S. tariffs on their cheese that he finances a war in which the U.S. conquers Switzerland … almost (it’s a comedy, after all).” (08/11/25)
https://prospect.org/economy/2025-08-11-trump-tariffs-as-war/