That follow-up barely counts for anything when it's used as an opportunity to humblebrag ("I'm a man on honor") and backtrack ("well ackshually Trump 2.0 is very different, other than that I was totally right, you know! ☝️🤓"). Nowadays I am finding it increasingly difficult to be forgiving of people who believe, trust, and worship Trump, especially after the decades of Trump proving himself to be an evil charlatan.
To paraphrase: "This was a chance to get back at all those foreigners who created all our problems."
All our problems were created by lazy ass bigots and xenophobes who place the fault for the problems our own poor character and stupidity created on the heads of the nearest scapegoat.
And, quite aside from that, when you get back at foreigners, they'll get back at you. They'll behave, in other words, exactly as you do. Who indeed could have guessed that?
Who could have guessed that other people would make our tariffs reciprocal? Surely not the people suggesting reciprocal tariffs.
Who could have guessed that Trump was "truly going to implement 20% tariffs on everything?" Who could ever have guessed that a dangerous megalomaniac would ever do exactly what he said he was going to do when in power? After all, Hitler proved to be all talk.
Credit for saying the words, "I was wrong," though. It's a worthwhile act that's disappearing from the world fast.
However, an apology that indicated he had learned from the experience would have concluded something to the effect of: "I'm going to have to think twice about calling my opponents stupid when in fact they were smart and I was stupid about this. In fact *I'm dreaming, of course* maybe name calling should be eliminated from politics and all of us should advocate for our points of view while being open to changing our minds based on new information."
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u/stereoroid 19h ago
Admitting he was wrong counts for something, though.