Watching Trump - Tariffs - your thoughts

[Livingbytheocean]

Did I actually hear him use the word rape in his presidential address?

I have been blindsided listening to the ‘content’ by the flippant use of that word.

What ridiculousness. What happened to that wall Trump said he would build? Less than one percent of fentanyl comes through the Canadian border. But it is up to the country of entry to patrol what gets inside. It's not like the us prevents drugs or weapons from getting into Canada.

He is by far the cuntiest of all the obnoxious, insufferable MAGA cunts. Why do they keep inviting him on? I get that it's good ragebait TV but it's just so pointless. You're never going to get any genuine insight out of him as he only has two modes: condescending bully or sycophantic parroter of the Trump line. Maybe just me, but I would actually be interested to hear a rational, reasonable Republican try to defend this tariff policy, and answer any challenges put to them without having an absolute meltdown. The problem is, there are none of those Republicans left.

I have come to the conclusion that it's not useful to listen too closely to what he says.It's not totally unrelated to what he is intending to do and why, but it's largely misleading as far as details.

The most useful explanations of what they seem to be trying to do have been from Yanis Varoufakis, and if he's right, there is a logic to it - but it's not about short term gains, it's about a complete reorientation of the place of the US in the global economic system.

It would be nice if he'd stick to whatever the plan is suppose to be though, rather than farting around changing things up.

Not all of them are happy, but you have to remember that their view is typically that the Democrat Party has been just as, or more, embarrassing in their own way.

Despite Trumps actions, the popularity of the Democrats is at a record low now. That means that a heck of a lot of people who are usually Democrat voters, and dislike Trump, are massively unhappy with them as well.

It's also worth remembering that the UK press typically over-eggs anything negative about the Republicans, and tends not to report negative stuff about the Democrats. So we usually don't get the same view of things as the Americans will in their media.

@Ilovelifeverymuch Edited to tag user I was responding to

Yes I’m aware that Trump is attempting to turn the American economy back 100 years. He talks about a new Gilded Age enough. But it won’t work. The globalisation genie is out of the bottle. The vast majority of US companies will need to import tariffed materials/goods in order to produce their products!

He’s going to slow growth and increase inflation which will especially hit the pockets of low income workers. The US dollar will become stronger, making US exports more expensive (even before any retaliatory tariffs), as there’s less incentive to swap the USD for other currencies. So not only will US consumers be hit heavily, manufacturers will be as well.

The world tried protectionism before. There’s a reason the WTO was founded (and by the US!) But good luck to him.

Good conclusion, I don't take what he saya at face value, I reas between the lines and listen to his cabinet, Rubio, Lutnick etc.

People get hung up on the drama and noise and miss his core point and to be fair he doesn't express himself well 😂. He fafs around and goes off track and refuses to use a promoter so I can see why people miss the point.

You are absolutely right it is not about short term gains, it is about a fundamental reorganizing of the US economy and unfortunately reorganizing the US economy will change the world economy as well.

While I don't agree with everything he does I respect his guts to push policies that focus on long term change. Not many politicians have the guts to do this because they are thinking of the next election.

I'm sorry, but this is absolutely delusional thinking.

You show me one, one piece of evidence, that this has been thought through to a cogent economic strategy. One piece.

Mark my words, this will result in another carve out for the companies that have crawled up his ass, while putting the thousands that haven't out of business, creating massive inflation, and making it almost impossible for any small business to succeed. And that's on top of the massive unemployment crisis they've managed to create.

Rubio has either become stupid, or the most craven collaborator since Nazi Germany and I've been convinced for a long time that 9/11 broke Lutnick's brain.

It was astonishing to watch him. He was like an obnoxious kid, not a serious person with a serious job. Just when I thought that you couldn’t get worse than Trump they wheel that out!

Well time will tell. His goal is to encourage companies to bring back production and we have seen many companies make public commitments so time will tell if it works or not.

You’re aware that production being outsourced to countries like China made goods cheaper for US consumers to buy right? Even if it becomes possible to produce all the items consumers want to buy in the US, are people going to be willing to pay more for them?

I remember them well. My son wants a Japanese 70s turntable for his birthday.

Interesting that he mentioned Taiwan moving production to the USA.

He is talking about chip production. TSMC in Taiwan is the number one chipmaker and their chips are first to many items today and they have agreed to open a factory on the US which will give the US capability to also build the critical chips and create jobs and investment.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/tsmc-ceo-meet-with-trump-tout-investment-plans-2025-03-03/

Intel used to the the dominant chip maker and they have struggled for a while now.

This investment creates a dilemma for Taiwan, they are dependent on the US for security and their unique selling point was the chip making which the US wanted to keep secure especially away from the hands of China. if the US gets the capability to build their own chips does that mean Taiwan is less valuable? Time will tell.

How’s your mate Nigel? Why do you keep trying to detract for the US shit show?

Are we going to put tariffs on tech?
if all countries did that it would send a message
at the moment they have negligible tariffs and tax

And the second part of that equation is it allowed companies and shareholders to profit massively from cheap labour and goods. So larger companies, that have no intention of giving that up, will buy their way into favour with him, which will be a small price to pay for the carve outs they'll get. Small businesses and small cogs in the machine won't be able to stay viable.

And you might not want to look at the plight of American farms right now...

Well the tariffs are reciprocal so any additional tariffs by the UK will be matched. And the UK tariffs are the lowest at 10% which suggests UK tariffs on US goods are also low.

Every country needs to prioritize their economy and if they feel increasing tariffs is the answer then go for it. Countries like Germany will feel the squeeze, they are already struggling with falling demand in China their largest market and the US is their second largest market so they will feel the loss of access to the market unless the likes of Mercedes etc increase their production capacity in the US to avoid the tariffs.

Do you mean physical hardware or services? If the later I don't think tariffs will hit services at the moment. I think the UK's main export to the US is services?

This still hurts my brain... if you develop car engine management software in the UK and export to the US is that 25% or 0% rated?!

I guess, as always, the devil will be in the detail.

Maybe create a quality product if you want people to buy your chickens and cars?

Who indeed, they're invariably wrong.

I wonder where he thinks America is going to magic up this manufacturing capacity from to meet domestic demand. Americans will still want to buy TVs and cars but they don’t make enough in the USA for that demand so they’ll have to buy imports - just now they’ll be tariff on then so they’ll be more expensive. You can’t build a car plant overnight. And what company is going to want to make that sort of investment anyway, given the volatile nature of the administration?

Oh dear. Of course they are

He’s a great twat though, a great guy !

There’s a digital services tax which if a trade deal happens are part of negotiations and could go in other direction, to zero.

Not sure people would want that rn tbf

The Trump tariffs appear to be 50% of the trade deficit the US has with the target country. No the tariff currently imposed by the country. I am guessing for some of the small countries with zero manufacturing exports to the US it was based on stamp trades on eBay.

The reciprocal tariff is a threat by trump saying if you impose a tariff in retaliation then it will be matched... Or reciprocated.