Donald Trump and White House officials walked back a Friday announcement that there would be tariff exemptions on imported electronics.
In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump directly denied the tariff exemption announcement.
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“This is really mind-boggling. If this was serious industrial policy, the main thing you want is certainty: ‘Here’s the tariff, it will be in place for the indefinite future, and you should plan accordingly,’” Dean Baker, an economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a left-leaning think tank, said, according to The Washington Post. “Here, it’s basically: ‘Come back next week and see what we’ve got.’ That’s no way to run an economy.”
This isn’t even a subtle attempt to destabilize the world market, and yet so many people are just like
You imply that this is done with intent?
The first part, sure: show them the stick, then dangle the carrot. But the walkback of the excemption was intentional?
I don’t think so. It’s all just blatant extortion attempts followed by bumbling cluelessness.
I think it’s time we stop assuming this is just simply stupidity. He’s an entertainer who’s made his public career by being a meme while at the same time being a conman. He’s been effectively toeing the line between joke and conman for decades and knows that if he plays dumb and schmoozes enough, he can do whatever he wants. We’re talking about a guy who successfully turned “You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy.” into “it’s just locker talk between guys.” a close relationship with a known human trafficker and pedofile into “he’s a terrific guy,” and proceeded to walk away from a rape case and 34 felony convictions with no penalty.
Time and time again he’s shown exactly the kind of guy he really is, and it isn’t just a bumbling idiot. It’s a career criminal who knows exactly what he’s doing and how to be smooth enough to get away scot-free. Why would this be any different? Just because it’s on a grand scale?
I see it more differentiated. He is not a complete idiot. He (and his team) know what they’re doing when he makes outrageous claims about Greenland, China, Panama etc. to have a better position when he offers the country “a good deal”. But when that rather predictable stratagem doesn’t go as planned, they flounder.
We’ve seen it a few times now; at least to me there’s a clear difference between their regular “throwing shit at the wall” tactic, and something like this or Signalgate or JD’s recent visit to Greenland, when it’s just totally clear that things did not go as planned.
There’s no 4D chess here.
I don’t think it’s their intent to destabilize the world market (to what end?), just a simple “grab as much as possible for ourselves the USA”.
Putin doesn’t plan so meticulously either, he just backs the guy who’s most likely to destabilize “The West” through his sheer cleptocracy and partial idiocy, if you will.
Also I don’t think anyone’s reaction here is “surprised pikachu” - though I must admit he and his entourage still manage to out-outrage themselves every now and then. And I reserve the right to not normalize Trumplon, i.e. continue to be outraged by it.
It’s almost like your laws had a very good reason for a very long time to disallow the president the power to unilaterally impose tariffs.
Hell, to unilaterally do MOST things.
I’m not surprised that this is how the second Trump administration has started. This level of stupidity is exactly what I was expecting. What does surprise me, though, is that many tens of millions of people voted for this. Honestly, it’s shaken my commitment to democracy. Maybe the people shouldn’t be making important decisions.
The US was never a democracy to begin with. It was a government designed to benefit one very particular small but powerful minority.
It’s just that now it’s come out of the closet.
It’s strange that it would happen now, at a point when literally every job can be automated(or will be automatable within the next 5-10 years).
…stupidity? 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
They’re intentionally crashing the economy so they and all their billionaire buddies can buy everything up for cheap. Everything is going literally exactly as planned.
I was one to agree with you for a time, but at this point I’m not even sure what the plan could actually be, US treasury bonds are taking a big hit because of this shit and the global economic order is shifting to exclude the US and could even endanger the dollar as the world reserve currency. That’s a change so seismic no one could even predict what it would mean for anyone. If that’s his intention then whoever came up with the plan is stupid beyond all imagining
If that’s his intention then whoever came up with the plan is stupid beyond all imagining
Ding ding ding!
Their plan literally involves devaluing the dollar. They don’t want the dollar as the global reserve currency. They have no idea how it’ll all actually shake out but they’re confident that they’ll end up proportionately richer than everyone else. Sure the absolute amount of their wealth might decrease, but the real amount relative to the “serfs” will skyrocket.
They basically want their own little technofeudalist fiefdoms where everyone unfortunate enough to live in them is basically their property.
I think that’s it, and they victimize LGBTQ+ people and immigrants because their supporters love it and it buys them time to implement their kleptocracy. Some of the Trump people are true-believer Nazis, but some of them are just greedy assholes who will throw anyone under the bus for their own gain.
I don’t think that what K-to-12 schools are capable of teaching even in the best-case scenario can be sufficient to equip the average person with the knowledge and critical thinking skills necessary to, for example, evaluate complex economic policy on its merits. I have a STEM PhD but it isn’t in economics and I don’t think I can evaluate economic policy well - I go with the consensus of economists, but that’s easy for me because I think their best interests and mine are aligned. (I want to see the stock market go up.) I’m not sure what a person whose interests are not aligned with the economists’ is supposed to do… Listen to ignorant demagogues who promise everything, apparently.
I think that’s a good idea, but, unfortunately, if put to a vote, I’m confident the American people would vote against it.
Before the election, I saw a house flying a big flag with the words “Elect Trump King of the United States”. So, uh, maybe monarchy would turn out to be even worse…
With that said, I understand how you feel. I don’t know how democracy can work in a post-truth era.
Y’know, if America had a constitutional monarchy, it might actually work out just fine. Let Trump be the king, so he can rant, do ceremonial stuff, be in the news all the time, have his fans, cause controversies, &c.… meanwhile the real elected government would be quietly busy attending to the people’s business.
The AP source title is: Trump’s commerce secretary says new electronics tariff exemptions are temporary, chip tariffs coming
The part that’s been denied is that the exclusion is permanent. Since Friday, electronics from China would be subject to 20% of the fentanyl tariff and nothing more. It will be this way until Trump invents another tariff just for electronics. I believe this is what most commentators expected back in Friday, but there must be talks of capitulation and Trump couldn’t stand to lose face.
Crazy that someone checked the facts and shares about it and 3 hours later only has 5 upvotes including the one I just gave. Thank you.
Maybe next time you should begin your comment with # HERE IS THE CONTEXT GUYS!
The USA is definitely a joke now. It’s just that everyone is laughing nervously. We are afraid that falling so fast from top to bottom will bring the system down.
Which system? The US political system? That one is damaged beyond repair and needs to be reworked completely. The global economic system? That one is also damaged beyond repair, but the rework will create a lot of instability and most likely war.
