You seem to be operating under the misplaced assumption that Trump’s goal with the tariffs was to actually bring manufacturing back to the US or improve the US economy in any way. It’s understandable if you haven’t paid very close attention to Trump over the past 9 years. But whenever thinking about him or his policies, you have to keep one thing top of mind: Trump is a habitual liar who only cares about his own personal wealth and power.
He’s not trying to bring manufacturing back to the US or improve the US economy. He’s doing market manipulation to increase his wealth and that of those who helped get him into power. He doesn’t give a shit about you or me or any of the rest of us. He couldn’t care less if the US crumbled into dust tomorrow, so long as he’s still on top.
His goal is to enrich himself and hurt others while getting praised like a toddler that just shit on the toilet for the first time.
In truth, he missed the bowl but still wants that praise, anyway.
Yes but you, like everyone I seem to talk to these days, is under the false impression that Trump isn’t a complete idiot who literally thinks tariffs are the solution to all problems. It’s more comforting to think there’s some massive conspiracy by Russia or that it’s a ploy to make money off the stock market, but I truly believe that Trump actually thinks tariffs will magically fix the economy and his reactions to the backlash are legitimate shock that so many people and the markets don’t agree. Yes Russia does stand to gain from this, but they don’t need to pull the strings when the guy in charge is innovating economic policy so stupid that a smart person would have trouble even imagining it.
Trump decisions make more sense when you realize he is actually stupid as fuck and there’s no hidden chess moves or anyone pulling the strings from the shadows. There is nobody at the wheel who is actually competent even if they’re evil. This is all just the whims of a complete moron who is probably also going a bit senile as well.
Why do you think Donald Trump has any clue about anything he is doing? Has he not repeatedly demonstrated the opposite?
He’s simply doing what Putin says, no thinking on his part
He only has concepts of a plan.
His words, not mine.
Look. He had the stupid tariff idea. He liked it because he likes the thought of getting his way by punishing people who defy him. That’s how he sees tariffs. It wasn’t a good idea. People told him that. So, being a stubborn narcissist, he wanted to do it more. Now here we are.
There’s a near-infinite number of better things trump could have done.
Including “nothing at all”.
Tariffs have been the one major actual policy position rattling around in Trump’s empty skull since at least 1988. He fucking loves the idea of tariffs, for some reason.
Smart, specific targeted tariffs paired with grants/incentives to American companies to foster local production of critical goods (think CHIPS Act) can be a good thing, if they are done in such a way that it doesn’t send an entire industry/market into financial shock.
Like, if you want to onboard silicon wafer manufacturing (as a prime example); you would announce a small tariff to start off with, and a clear road-map of it increasing over time - allowing time for companies to build the necessary infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities onshore.
Once the industry has settled and matured, those tariffs could begin to be slowly pared back to ensure that free-market competition continues to keep prices in check.
But this would only work in an actual free-market economy, and not in the oligopoly-in-a-trenchcoat that currently exists in the states.
I mean, all I can say is that 5 years ago we were trying to get people to buy local because of China, and now Trump has managed to get all the people who didn’t listen back then to become really hardcore about buying local now, thanks to his tariffs.
