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Trump's China-Made Bibles – The American Prospect
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Trump's China-Made Bibles – The American Prospect

If we skim past the xenophobic and racist inventions in Donald Trump's recent speeches, which are similar in length to those of Fidel Castro and have long since resembled those of Joseph Goebbels in their veracity, we come to my favorite Trump story of the week. As the Associated Press first reported yesterday, the “God Bless the USA” Bibles that Trump gave his supporters were sold for the low price of $59.99 (or $1,000 if you want a Bible personally inscribed by Trump ) sold to its supporters, actually printed and bound in China. In reviewing customs data on the value of all imports into the United States, the AP found that the actual value of each Bible – the cost of production – was $3.

Of course, these are not just ordinary Bibles. This also includes the texts of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Pledge of Allegiance. Some versions have Trump's name on the cover in full, as well as the words “The Day God Intervened,” presumably referring to the day Trump narrowly escaped assassination.

More from Harold Meyerson

The Bibles were printed in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou by the New Ade printing company. One of their sales reps confirmed to AP that they had done the printing. They are marketed on a website with a photo of Trump and one-non-hit wonder Lee Greenwood. Proceeds will go to CIC Ventures, a company Trump owns.

Rarely has the AP told a story as delicious as this one. First, we have to ask ourselves whether Trump would impose a 60 percent tariff on these Bibles if he were elected and continued to peddle them. (He has vowed to impose a 60 percent tariff on Chinese-made goods if elected.) As for the gap that has grown between his stated nationalist beliefs and his existential concern with increasing his wealth to subsistence levels by reducing labor costs, Maximizing sales has opened up high among its legions of juices – this gap, it is clear, can only be measured in light years. On the other hand, I hasten to point out that even though there are many Bible printing companies here in Greenwoods USA, Trump has only moved production to China for the same reason that Apple, Tesla and countless other corporations have moved production to China : It's dirt cheap.

Furthermore, both Chinese communists and American Republicans hate unions and have been fighting for years over who could suppress them more effectively.

Trump's deal also calls into question the reasons he ridiculed Kamala Harris' proposal to crack down on price gouging. Rather than belief in the alleged ineffectiveness and impertinence of such attempts to regulate markets, this suggests that price gouging, not to mention fraud, has occurred (see: New York real estate valuation, existence of Trump University, etc.) . essential to Trump's wealth creation.

By putting his own personal stamp on both And By including the Bill of Rights in his Bible, Trump is (in my opinion) reminiscent of Franklin Roosevelt's own stamp on that Bill of Rights when he suggested in his 1941 State of the Union address that the nation already had two freedoms as Recognize fundamental rights included in this document – freedom of expression and freedom of worship – and add two more, freedom from fear and freedom from want. Trump undoubtedly reveres freedom no less than Roosevelt, and he may want to publish in later editions of his Bible a list of the freedoms he holds dear, whether in China or (if cheaper) in Vietnam. There is freedom of fact. Freedom from decency. Freedom from consequences for the president's illegality (wait – he already got that from the Supreme Court). Exemption from taxation of ill-gotten gains. Freedom from having to pay American workers if you can get Chinese workers to do it cheaper. The list could be long.

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