Donald Trump just imposed a 25 percent tariff on virtually all goods produced by America’s two largest trading partners — Canada and Mexico. He simultaneously established a 20 percent across-the-board tariff on Chinese goods.
As a result, America’s average tariff level is now higher than at any time since the 1940s.
Meanwhile, China and Canada immediately retaliated against Trump’s duties, with the former imposing a 15 percent tariff on American agricultural products and the latter putting a 25 percent tariff on $30 billion of US goods. Mexico has vowed to mount retaliatory tariffs of its own.
This trade war could have far-reaching consequences. Trump’s tariffs have already triggered a stock market sell-off and cooling of manufacturing activity. And economists have estimated that the trade policy will cost the typical US household more than $1,200 a year, as the prices of myriad goods rise.
All this raises the question: Why has the US president chosen to upend trade relations on the North American continent? The stakes of this question are high, since it could determine how long Trump’s massive tariffs remain in effect. Unfortunately, the president himself does not seem to know the answer.
In recent weeks, Trump has provided five different — and contradictory — justifications for his tariffs on Mexico and Canada…
…more in the article.
Apparently It’s supposed to get rid of the browns and the gays and the women and everyone else until it’s just a bunch of old white men sitting around, counting money, and masturbating to AI porn? Kind of like a hateful gross version of Scrooge McDuck.
It seems to be working, I signed my ticket out of here. I’m a brown and queer woman. Just need to survive until immigration goes through.
Godspeed friend, hope this place will be worthy of you again someday
Spooge McFuck
Stooge McCuck
Scrooge McDuck was also pretty awful. They had to invent a nemesis for him, Flintheart Glumgold, just to make him not seem so bad by comparison.
Donald is in indentured servitude after all. Gnarly man.
And economists have estimated that the trade policy will cost the typical US household more than $1,200 a year
Remember this, when you hear about tax cuts for the wealthy.
That’s chicken change if you make, say, $80K+. Significant if you make, say, $20K. (Thinking about individuals, not households, adjust accordingly. And COL is a huge thing depending.)
In any case, I’d take that number with a bucket of salt. Can’t see any way that number was calculated meaningfully this early in the game.
All this raises the question: Why has the US president chosen to upend trade relations on the North American continent?
It’s because the trade agreement trump’s unhappy with was made by a raging moron.
The same moron who sunk casinos somehow
The secret ingredient is crime. The casinos were fronts for money laundering and “failed” on purpose as part of the scam.
Hope that’s sarcasm because the USMCA was signed and implemented by Trump
OP made a factual statement.
Hahah agreed
Just my opinion as a layman: the tariffs give his corporate backers all the excuse they need to jack up prices even higher.
And when he takes the tariffs off, the prices never go back to the original starting point.
That, plus it seems very likely that he and friends are just manipulating the market to trade on the predictable moves he’s causing. Ya know, the kinda stuff that earned Musk some mild hand slaps and theatrical pearl clutching (in addition to giant financial benefits) in recent years.
yup, it forces everyone to raise prices, including competitors.
He is a Russian asset and has been since at least 2014
Yeah. Dude knows exactly why he’s weakening America as much and on every front as possible, it’s just he can’t exactly say the truth and isn’t smart enough to effectively lie about it.
I know why he did it. Because that’s what his best best friend from Kremlin said and his two last working brain cells are in vacation playing golf.
He probably doesn’t understand that if US stops all trading, will become just a bigger North Korea with nukes.
Market manipulation. If you can tank the stock market at a time YOU know well in advance, then you stand to profit “tremendously”.
He or people in his stead might have purchased put options ahead of the anouncement of tariffs. -> profits When he then says “it was just a prank brooo!” he can make money by buying the now devalued assets and sell them as soon as they recover. rinse repeat.
I smell market manipulation maybe I am mistaken this smell and it is really the smell of mental instability…
This only works so well. Especially when he’s proven that he flip flops as often as he does, no one will reinvest, because who knows when the next time he does something stupid to tank the market again. The smarter ones will actually catch onto the grift, and see it for what it is, and just pull out altogether so when the recession/depression hits full on, they at least have something instead of nothing.
Idk if anyone will still have anything left after there is an all out market crash, who knows really? it could be going global… our world is more interconnected than it seems. especially economically…
Of course he doesn’t. He should be in elder care not in the White House.
Synonym for the past 4 years tbh. But hey, I (as a non-American) would be okay with old but not insane president. Guess we got both this time around.
That was how I made peace with Biden in the first place.
“You aren’t voting for the man, you’re voting for the cabinet and judges he appoints”.
Atleast Biden’s cabinet was more-or-less competent. I didn’t always agree with them, but atleast there was a logic outside of “this will only benefit the obscenely rich/Russia”
Exactly this, Biden wasn’t better health wise but surrounded himself with competent people.
Right now we have a fox news host leading defense, an anti-Vax moron handling a measles outbreak, a wrestling tycoon killing our education system, and more.
Market manipulation. He is also a TV show host, so he is a showman. He likes creating drama.
He is famous for bad management, causing his casinos to go bankrupt. His management style is going to bankrupt US and somehow make him richer.
Why can’t we make him unalive? He wouldn’t be able to play with WWIII that way…
Or just watch him bankrupt USA just like his casino, I think US need to go through that pain to realize why they should not vote for a showman, TV show host again.
Sun Tzu: “Never interrupt your opponent while he is in the middle of making a mistake.”
Sun Tzu I should read/listen to him much much more …
Does he know where he is, what time of day, or even which day of the week? ok maybe we should see if he can repeat this: “Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV” he seemed to pride himself in his ability to allegedly be able to do so… …allegedly…
Tariffs allow Trump to pay for his tax cuts to the ultra wealthy by stealing from the working class, without them knowing. He also gets to position himself as a strongman and negotiator. There you go.
The big corps can weather the storm, smalls will have to sell, consolidate and monopolize is the plan as I see it
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Look at the Project 2025 document, its supposedly written by the heritage foundation but has a section on building a border wall and doing capital punishment. Its clearly crafted by Trump.
Inside it talks about tariffs, using them to force other countries to lower their tariffs against the US. I assume its meant to force a free trade agreement that is 100% free trade, and not a misnomer like it is now, he wants the massive shock so that country are entirely submissive.
You think trump is capable of not just coming up with the worst political takes known to man, but also is even aware of that much policy?
I think you give him way more credit than he deserves
Seems like it’s not going according to plan then huh. US opponents are anything but submissive right now. I don’t think US has the capacity for a long game.
I don’t get the $1200 #… If every component of my purchase goods is 25% higher to the manuf passed to me, shouldn’t it be 25% of my annual spend?
25% on top of the old price, for goods not produced domestically. Assuming that’s all of them, that’d be 25% of your spend going towards products (Services are part of your spend, but don’t get tariffed), indeed. But some things get produced in the US, so I imagine they factored that in there. For the average household, this seems to amount to about $1200/a
