Let’s Make a Deal

By Siggy Raible

Remember the 1960s TV show Let’s Make A Deal? (Boy am I dating myself!) Well, CBS recently brought it back. Not to be outdone, our president, the author of The Art of the Deal, is proffering a whole slew of deals to law firms, universities, immigrants and foreign countries.

Let’s see the deals he’s offered to prominent law firms in the form of executive orders. Why don’t we look at the two law firms who took the offers? Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison agreed, among other things, to provide $40 million in pro bono legal services for issues the president champions. In exchange the White House would lift its order banning Paul, Weiss entry into government buildings and reinstate security clearances, thus allowing the law firm to continue to reap revenues which in 2024 totaled $2.63 billion.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, not as nimble as Paul, Weiss, agreed to provide $100 million towards pro bono work for administration-approved issues as well as other terms similar to those Paul, Weiss agreed to.

Other executive orders/memos/letters offered universities the opportunity to avail themselves of the federal funding provided in prior years if only they would agree to revisit their DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs, revise their Middle Eastern programs, and up their security to “protect” students and faculty against antisemitism. New York’s Columbia University, buckling under the administration’s pressure, hopes the $400 million in federal funding will continue; funds which support cutting edge scientific and technological research.

Deals can be made with foreign governments like the one El Salvador made with the Trump administration. El Salvador has agreed to accept and imprison 200 or so alleged criminal (mostly) Nicaraguan gang members in exchange for six million American dolares to cover the room and board of these supposed gang members. None of these prisoners were afforded due process, the right to confront their accusers (in this case, the US government). Trump is even considering sending American citizens he euphemistically calls “home grown criminals” who have committed “heinous crimes” to the same prison in El Salvador. (It is said that the facility, CECOT, can hold up to 40,000 to 50,000 individuals under inhuman conditions.) I wonder what price President Bukele, the self-styled “cool dictator,” would accept to conclude this deal.

And how about the offer President Trump extended to Ukrainian President Zelensky? Since Zelensky doesn’t hold the cards to make a deal, he should just agree to sign over the country’s rights to mineral, oil and other natural resources. After all, since Russia’s unprovoked attack of Ukraine in 2022, the US supplied billions of dollars of materials. And what did it get in return?

Trump is the promoter of our present tax policy which imposes a tariff on almost all imported products.As of this writing and after a week of on again/off again tariffs, he has settled (for now) on imposing an across-the-board tax of 10% on almost all our trading partners, friends and foes alike. (Excluding Russia, of course.) Additionally, a 25% tariff has been placed on imported autos, auto parts, steel and aluminum. The exception to the rule is China, a major manufacturing nation and competitor–where the tariffs total 145%. Trump has even placed tariffs on islands not inhabited by humans. On one such island I hear the penguins are pretty upset. If our trading partners want to reduce their tariffs, they are invited by the administration to call and make an appointment to discuss more favorable trade terms.

The administration has given varying reasons for these tariffs among them: to bring back manufacturing jobs; to lower the US trade deficit; to bring back manufacturing for security reasons; and Trump’s favorite argument: other nations are taking advantage of us, i.e., we’re being ripped off.

Most economists believe that these taxes/tariffs will eventually be passed along to consumers in that prices for most imported products will increase. And some economists speculate that even the price of products “made in America” could rise. That means, wait for it, since we are all consumers, we will be paying these tariffs. If that’s the case, who is being ripped off? Is this a good deal?

Because of the government’s chaotic roll out of this tariff policy, the stock markets around the world have reacted unfavorably as has the bond market here in America. Businesses, large and small, unsure of what the president’s final plan will be, are unsure of how to plan for the future … whether, to turn a phrase, to invest or not to invest. The uncertainty leads to loss of trust. And trust is what we rely on. When trust is eroded, a compact between any two parties is frayed. Our pact with other nations is sorely being tested. Nations are put off by the US’ aggressive shifting tax policies. Not to mention its threat to take back the Panama Canal, make Canada the 51st state and to annex Greenland.

Are these deals good for Americans? Immigrants? Our nation? The world? Penguins?

Are these even deals or are they “offers you can’t refuse” proffered by a wannabe strongman?