I’m writing about Idaho - again.
I’ve long had a love-hate relationship with the state where I spent 40 years, and like some old (mostly) pleasant memory tinged with regret I just can’t shake the place - the mountains, the rivers, the old and good friends. Mostly the memories.
Idaho has also become for me a petrie dish through which to observe the growth of a kind of political bacteria that exposes just how far off the rails an already very conservative state has gone in the Time of Trump.
So, here goes.
An enduring feature of the Trump Era, in addition to the illegal executive orders, the senseless gutting of national health and science research, the chaotic and feckless approach to national security and the wildly corrupt behavior of the president, is the consistent and cringeworthy groveling by Republican elected officials seeking the favor of our would-be king.
Incredible news for Idaho’s farmers and ranchers! This trade agreement with the U.K. will open exciting new opportunities for Idaho agriculture. Thank you President Donald J. Trump for your leadership!
You come to expect that level of obsequious fawning from a Cabinet secretary or Fox News or Russian television host, but that quote came on May 8 from the two-term governor of Idaho, Brad Little.
Little, as in there is nothing too belittling for him to do in order to kiss up to Donald Trump, once had a discerning and practical political mind. That mind has now been infested, RFK, Jr.-style, with Trumpian brain worms.
Earlier this week Little posted a short video of himself standing in front of the White House with “Made in Idaho” products spread on a White House driveway. He was positively giddy.
I just dropped off some of our Great Idaho commodities at the White House to thank President @realDonaldTrump for his incredible trade deal with the UK!
I am excited to announce Idaho is headed to the UK this fall to build off @POTUS’ great work and promote Idaho agriculture!
As a general rule governors should refrain – we should all refrain – from excessive exclamation point usage, but four !!!! in two short messages !
Wow! Good thing no tariffs were imposed on (!) points.
Did the governor of Idaho really fly all the way across the country to make a 24 second Facebook video simply to curry favor with his king? You betcha he did.
He’s apparently running for re-election next year and needs the “total and complete” blessing of the American Sun King to ward off a challenge from the even farther right. ¹
These cuddle up, ego stroking, fulsome praise and fawn over messages have, of course, only an audience of one. Trump was in Qatar at the time Little was preening in front of the White House this week, arranging, no doubt, the details of his wildly !!! unconstitutional luxury Boeing 747 gift (or grift) from the absolute monarch of that terrorist supporting Middle East country.
But the governor knows a Facebook post lasts forever and surely the White House Office of Sycophantic Governors Who Support the Great Man is keeping track of such things. If so, it was a good week for the shrinking governor from Idaho.
But here’s the thing: this great UK – US trade deal is a sham when it comes to Idaho and most other states. The announcement of the “deal” was a press release mascaraing as trade policy.
Since UK prime minister Sir Kier Starmer needed a “deal” as badly as the president both men hyped the agreement for all it was worth, which isn’t much since the specifics for agriculture producers were, well, mostly non-existent.
As the BBC reported:
The US has agreed to reduce import taxes on a set number of British cars and allow some steel and aluminum into the country tariff-free, as part of a new agreement between the US and UK.
Great news for the Idaho market for Bentleys and Jaguars and the state’s vast import market for metals. But, you may ask, what about those Idaho agricultural products that are now going to flow so freely toward the Brits? ²
There does appear to be some potential upside for the U.S. beef exports to the U.K. – the governor is a rancher – but the fine print details are rather foggy, as in we have a concept of an agreement and nothing more.
The American Farm Bureau Federation called it an "important first step", while noting “more work is needed.”
“This is a good deal for American farmers ... but it is at the end of the day a fairly narrowly-focused framework,” said Lewis Lukens, former acting US Ambassador to the UK and deputy chief of mission to the US embassy in London during part of Trump's first term.
“It gives Trump a political victory with not too much really to show behind it.”
As Reuter’s reported: “Both sides have agreed to new reciprocal market access on beef, with UK farmers given a first-ever tariff-free quota for 13,000 metric tons.”
In other words: U.K. beef coming to the U.S.
But there is more “incredible news for Idaho farmers.”
“There will be no weakening of UK food standards on imports, despite repeated entreaties by the U.S. side.
“Crucially there will be no weakening of UK food standards on U.S. beef imports, which was an election manifesto pledge for the Labour government. That means U.S. beef bred with growth hormones still won't be allowed in.
“U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the deal would ‘exponentially increase’ U.S. beef exports to Britain. But much depends on whether American beef could compete with the British beef on price and find favor with British consumers.
“Currently 100% of the fresh beef sold by Britain's two biggest supermarket chains Tesco and Sainsbury’s is British and Irish.”
A concept of a deal with a thousand loose ends. That is what the governor is touting with all those exclamation points.
But the fact-based world is just a concept for Republican governors whose political future depends on the art of the kiss up. The reality, as the Washington Post noted, is the UK’s trade future, given the chaos and unpredictability of the Trump Era, is with Europe, not with Idaho.
“Starmer is trying to placate Trump even as the British prime minister seeks a new post-Brexit relationship with Europe,” the Post reported, “which is a far more important farm market than the United States. Britain and the E.U. are expected to announce their trade deal as soon as next week.
“Starmer will host E.U. leaders in London on May 19 in what is being dubbed a major Brexit ‘reset’ summit, where leaders are expected to discuss ways to further trade and cooperation between the U.K. and the trading bloc.”
The governor might want to reconsider his trade mission to the UK this fall and book a ticket – maybe take some Idaho spuds or peas and lentils along – and head for Brussels, or Ottawa.
One follower of Brad Little on Facebook posted the only possibly appropriate comment to his servile Trumpian fabulism about trade and so much more.
“Weird,” she said.