Trump Does his Awesome New Tariffs. Winning!!

It works for people like Rick though; they eat it up. It’s no longer about being correct, or doing what’s best, how can they fleece the greatest number of fools.

 

It’s already winning!

Greg Gutfeld says Donald Trump's tariffs are "already a win. We are already getting results."

besides, you shouldn’t be caring about something as silly as your money, your net worth

Benny Johnson on Trump's tariffs crashing markets: "Nobody ever had their net worth carved onto their tombstone. Doesn't even matter when you're on your deathbed. Who cares?"

 

"At least he tried unlike that deep state globalist Biden" the man in tattered red hat tells me as we wait in line for our bread rations.

 

that shit was unhinged
— West Virginia is a shithole now because of globalism, so let’s burn down the country and make believe it’s 1950. Unbelievable.

 

You are correct, but present it accurately. It is damaging enough when presented it correctly, no need to misrepresent the data. A two thousand point drop today is not the same as a 2000 point drop in 1939.

 

I'm not endorsing Trump's tariff policies. And I don't care what "1000 economists" say necessarily. I care more about what a dozen or so blue chip economists say. Tariffs aren't just about economics, they are also in some cases about national security

 

Trump has already accomplished something Biden couldn't do in 4 years:

For 2 consecutve months the private sector has added jobs and the public sector has lost jobs.

 

False.

Government employment went from 23,593 to 23,612 last month. The previous month, it went from 23,592 to 23,593.

Table B-1. Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry sector and selected industry detail - 2025 M03 Results

 

Trump lying, again. Shocker. Yeah, let’s claim Buffett, who has called tariffs an act of war, is in support of what Trump is doing now.

https://apnews.com/article/fact-che...riffs-video-52e6b63bd770e73ca54eae7a0c7bbcc3#

 

Trump will go down in history as an economic winner in much the same way as President Hoover.

 

It’s early. Maybe this will work.

 

Because in MAGA world, messaging is everything, facts are a far, distant care.

 

Define “work.” Tariffs aren’t some unknown; their effects have been studied extensively. Going free trade was how Chile and Ireland turned their economies around a couple decades ago.

 

Was getting ready to post something similar to this. Buffet is not a fan of over the top tariffs. Explains why he was selling the market and moving to cash some time back.

 

As best I can tell "work" has been categorized as three things. Numbers 1 and 2 are directly contradictory.

1. Countries will all negotiate and do whatever we want. What we want? Them to pull down fairly minor tariffs, generally, on average, less than 5% for most major trading partners. Often much less than that.
2. We will permanently have these taxes and use it to collect revenue, either using that to pay off debt or shift off of other, often more progressive, taxes, shifting the tax burden to poor and middle class people away from the more wealthy.
3. It will stop something completely unrelated like fentanyl.

They can't settle on a specific goal because they don't have one.

 

I was referring to federal job reductions (which Trump has direct control over), not State and local gov't jobs. All deserve substantial cuts imo


I've seen multiple sources saying the federal gov't sector lost jobs in February and March. Example:

"In keeping with February, federal government jobs continued to decline, although at a slower pace. Some 4,000 government jobs were lost in March, a drop from the 11,000 jobs lost in February."
Private Sector Jobs Increased Significantly in March, Report Shows

 

Words have meaning. Public sector is all levels of government.

BTW, if you meant federal government, your post was still false. That happened with some regularity under Biden. For example, in June 2022, federal government employment had declined two straight months while total private employment had increased in the prior two months.

 

Agreed. Here's a question for you: What percent of national income should total gov't spending be (federal, state and local)? Keep in mind that Milton Friedman said that roughly 10% of national income was consumed by people having to comply with gov't regulations.

In 1910 total gov't spending was 12% of national income.

1980--44+%

1989--40+%

Today 48%? (The cost of complying with gov't regulations adds another 10% as stated).

Should half of national income be going to gov't? Doesn't this mean our country is 50% socialist?

 

While anything is possible it's almost analogous to betting one's future on a MegaMillions or Power Ball lottery ticket. The chance that Trump is pursuing the correct policy are extremely small. The proverbial circular firing squad is still the best metaphor for a trade war.
From Tom Friedman my favorite columnist
Trump Just Bet the Farm
Donald Trump is not known for doing his homework — he’s more of a go-with-my-gut kind of guy. What I find most terrifying about what Trump is doing today is that he seems to be largely relying on his gut to bet that he can radically overturn how America’s institutions have operated and the way the nation relates to both its allies and enemies — and get it all right. As in, America will become stronger and more prosperous, while the rest of the world will just adjust. Next question.

Well, what are the odds that Trump can get all of these complex issues right — based on trusting his gut — when on the same day that he was announcing his huge tariff increases on imports from the world over, he invited into the Oval Office Laura Loomer, a conspiracy theorist who believes that Sept. 11 was an “inside” job. She was there, my Times colleagues reported, to lecture Trump about how disloyal key members of the National Security Council staff were. Trump subsequently fired at least six of them. (No wonder so many Chinese asked me in Beijing last week if we were having a Mao-like “cultural revolution.” More on that later.)

Yes, what are the odds that such a president, seemingly ready to act on foreign policy on the advice of a conspiracy theorist, got all this trade theory right? I’d say they’re long.

What is it that Trump, with his grievance-filled gut, doesn’t understand? The time we live in today, though far from perfect or equal, is nevertheless widely viewed by historians as one of the most relatively peaceful and prosperous in history. We are benefiting from this pacific era in large part because of a tightening web of globalization and trade, and also because of the world’s domination by a uniquely benign and generous hegemon called the United States of America that is at peace and economically interwoven with its biggest rival, China.

 

yeah work means either

- brings manufacturing and jobs back home
-OR other countries cave and give us more favorable trade deals

As to the first, most manufacturing has large global ecosystems, like cars, chips, iPhones - spanning many countries and even if companies wanted to tear that down and move it all to the US, that would take many years and would still be more expensive.

As to the second, maybe he thinks this is like NAFTA - he can make big threats and negotiate a marginally better deal and then declare a political victory. That’s not going to bring a lot of jobs back to the US.

Also, most people have no idea if the second above actually happens and if that doesn’t the chances are the tariffs are reversed in 4 years is significant, so companies aren’t going to spend and invest billions of dollars that aren’t going to stick.

These tariffs will lead to higher prices and lower corporate profits >>lower share prices. It is pretty straightforward.