VP JD VANCE: "For 40 years, we’ve had an economy that rewards people who ship American jobs overseas and raises taxes on American workers, and we’re flipping that on its head." 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/IqhHi1klJ6
— Proud Elephant 🇺🇸🦅 (@ProudElephantUS) April 3, 2025
I believe there is a not-wholly-unreasonable take about building something out of tariffs and the possibility of negotiation strategy and tactics (see, for instance, the best points from Oren Cass), but there are way too many holes and maybes in that line of thinking for my taste when you consider the implications of it being wrong.
Without going fully conspiracy-thinking about it, I think Hanania is closer to the mark. Hanania can be off-base, and sometimes contemptibly so, but he’s bright and has some decent points. I see this as, at least partially, one of his decent takes.
“Authoritarian leaders do not care about the prosperity of the country. If these tariffs stick, it is a massive increase in Trump’s personal power. Businesses will be desperate for exceptions, any jobs created would be dependent on Trump’s policies. The corruption is the point.”
You don’t have to carry that out to full-on corruption or the most nefarious sort of authoritarian regime for it to make sense when you consider Trump’s personal ethics, his admiration for authoritarian leaders, the way a lot of his decisions have appeared to be for sale, and the way the exception game has appeared to be developing since he took office.
the problem with saying 'this is just how trump negotiates' is that trump is betting that other nations will consider the USA the same dependable place as it has been since WW2, once this blows over.
It looks a lot to me that every nation on earth is saying 'the USA is different now and will stab us in the back the first chance it gets so let's sell dollars and us assets.' It won't be the same after this.
The dollar is plunging, for example. In the past, in a crisis the dollar has risen as a safe haven. Now the dollar is flown from.
Without the dollar as the prime currency on earth, we will impoverish ourselves.
Will that capital come back like trump thinks it will? Not all of it. But trump thinks it will.
Other point is war...clearly japan and SK and europe have to go nuclear now and that's terrible, terrible news.
The other thing to consider is the dollar is the de factor international currency. Even if Trump's tarrifs "succeed" and the U.S. reduces it's trade deficit - that will mean more dollars will go back into the United States and there will be less dollars for the rest of the world to trade with, increasing the likelihood that another currency takes over as the major global reserve currency.
This. We have failed as a nation to govern ourselves. We get the government we deserve and this is it. We should have voted better, for Congress and the presidency.
“It is extraordinary that one man can hold so much unchecked power that with the stroke of a sharpie, he can make almost every individual in the world poorer. It’s not just the policy that shocks, but the systemic failure to curtail the charlatans excesses.”
This post was edited 36 seconds after it was posted.
Remember Trump's "perfect call" with Zelensky? Impeachment 1.0?
You can have those weapons to defend your country that congress apportioned for you after I lawlessly halted them. "But I need you to do me a favor though"
This is the purpose of Trump's tariffs. He wants everyone to come in and he can say over and over "But I need you to do me a favor though".
He wants industry, Universities, Nations, Newscorps all to come groveling to him and he will utter those infamous words. "I need you to do me a favor though".
It was a scandal in Trump 1.0. It is normal in Trump 2.0. We are doing wind sprints in our race to autocracy.
Take a concept: We reward companies that make production more efficient, and goods and services cheaper and more plentiful, even if that sometimes involves taking production overseas. We have done that because we have valorized capitalism and have long disparaged top-down government interference in business.
Now spin it: ”We reward companies that send production overseas …”
The tariffs are a tax being paid by American consumers. So I’m sure he has further mental gymnastics to explain how enacting tariffs turning taxation on its head.
The Economist: “Donald Trump has committed the most profound, harmful, and unnecessary economic error in the modern era. Almost everything he said—on history, economics and the technicalities of trade—was utterly deluded”
The vast majority of times a government fails its people (or worse) involve belief in the slogan and/or faith in Dear Leader over the evidence of their own eyes.
🚨 JUST IN: French President Emmanuel Macron calls on companies to CANCEL any investments into the United States after President Trump's new wave of tariffs.
The Economist: “Donald Trump has committed the most profound, harmful, and unnecessary economic error in the modern era. Almost everything he said—on history, economics and the technicalities of trade—was utterly deluded”
It takes an average of six months for any significant economic policy change to work its way through the economy. Any intervening downturn will be blamed on "Trump's tariff disaster" but that's just propaganda, a realistic picture will emerge around October/November
LOLZ. I didn't know Daniel Dale was still doing this routine....
Daniel Dale
Trump’s tariff speech yesterday: - Held up a chart that listed fictional tariff rates supposedly but not actually imposed by foreign countries - Falsely said hefty Canadian milk tariffs kick in after after the first “little carton” of US exports; in fact, they kick in after a USMCA-guaranteed tens of thousands of metric tons per year of zero-tariff US milk exports, a quota the US isn’t currently close to filling - Made the trade deficit with Canada sound more than five times higher than it is - Falsely said the tens of billions generated by his previous tariffs on Chinese imports were paid by China, though they were paid by US importers and passed on to US consumers - Falsely said no previous president generated even 10 cents from tariffs on China, though it was billions per year under Obama and though the US has had tariffs on Chinese imports since the late 1700s - Falsely though vaguely said the US was “proportionately the wealthiest it has ever been” from 1789 to 1913; by any reasonable measure, the country is vastly wealthier today - Falsely said inflation under Biden was the highest in US history; it peaked under Biden at the highest in 40 years but was nowhere close to the all-time high even at that 2022 peak - Said “gasoline is way under $3” though the national average was $3.24; did so while boasting “we brought prices way down,” though that was a 12-cent increase from the national average on his Inauguration Day - Claimed the Great Depression wouldn’t have happened if we’d just stuck with tariffs, making no mention of the Smoot-Hawley tariffs that worsened the depression
You're goddam right, Igol. Trump's brilliant tariff regime is a projection of American capitalism and free enterprise into the economies of our enemies. Americans are reaping the benefits of Trump's tariffs for decades to come after we spent that last 40 years being looted by liberals in cohort.
The world should cancel trump everything. He want to be an isolationist, the world should make it happen. The republicans are and have embarrassed themselves yet again.
“When you ask our businesses to invest into the US. They do. When you ask us to spend more on defense. We do. And when you ask us to strengthen security in the Arctic, we are on the same page. But when you demand to take over a part of the Kingdom of Denmark’s territory — when we are met by pressure and by threats from our closest ally, what are we to believe in about the country we have admired for so many years… This is not only about Greenland or Denmark. It’s about the world we built together. You can not annex another country!”
If the stated goal of Trumps tariffs is to grow US manufacturing why is everyone eliminating jobs?
Stellantis is temporarily laying 900 U.S. workers in Indiana and Michigan after it opted to idle production at two plants in Canada and Mexico after Trump auto tariffs took effect”