RARE TRUMP BACKDOWN (1) - TWEETS (0)

Where would the Trumpster be without Twitter? I'm surprised he doesn't tweet about his results in the loo every morning!

However, we have a rare moment in recent history to record.

It occurred when Donald Trump back-downed from a boast; but guess what?

No tweets!

Two weeks ago the three CEOs from Daimler-Benz, VWAG and BMW AG flew into Washington for talks with Trump, regarding his belligerent boast to impose stiff tariffs on all cars imported from Germany.

Harald Krüger (BMW), Herbert Diess (VW), and Dieter Zetsche (Daimler AG) saw Trump during an unplanned meeting (until revealed this week by The Times) to discuss the touchy subject of Trump's threats on tariffs.

As we already know, Trump doesn't take briefings; doesn't listen to his advisers, nor read up on details before such meetings. However, someone must have whispered into his shell-pink ear about how many cars these companies make in the USA already, and how many people they currently employ.

This could explain Trump's backdown, and so as not to upset his manic voter base, he declined to tweet about the outcome.


Daimler's Dieter Zetsche was upbeat as he made his way into the old congressional building (quite a way from the White House).

Reading from James Dean's report in The Times here is the paragraph which summed up how the talks went:

Three numbers sum up the state of German business at the end of 2018 - 7.1, 6.9 and 4.9.

These are the percentages by which shares in BMW, Daimler and VW respectively rose, after the three men travelled to Washington for the three-hour meeting with Trump.

The German DAX closed up 2.8% as investors breathed a sigh of relief.

The Donald has not tweeted a single character about these talks, and the positive resolution for the automakers. How 'bout that?