Trump’s tariff reversal came after he watched an interview on Fox Business with JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, during which the bank boss said that a recession was a “likely outcome” of the new trade policies, according to the Washington Post.
Trump was asked by a reporter on Wednesday when he decided to put a pause on the tariffs.
“I would say this morning. Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about it. Fairly early this morning,” he said.
Really? What was their first clue?
It’s important to the world to drop the “quietly” bit.
The US administration is behaving erratically and irrationally. This isn’t a punchline to some smug joke, it has important repercussions for world trade and defence needs.
Let’s cut the conspiracy theories about how they are doing this for graft, and the unfounded “4d chess” approaches. Some people in the administration may be trying to steer the government in these ways, but the captain of the ship is an unleashed chaos monkey surrounded by sycophantic yes-men.
The tariffs could double tomorrow or be gone tomorrow. The US could invade Greenland with a military force tomorrow or drop it completely move onto some shiny new idiocy.
We in the rest of the world need to move with urgency in order to be prepared for the worst. This is a tall task, so the longer we keep these admissions quiet the longer we are vulnerable
Let’s cut the conspiracy theories about how they are doing this for graft, and the unfounded “4d chess” approaches.
He is doing it for a grift, it’s pretty out in the open. You’re right about the 4d chess though. That’s his thing, think like a stupid mob boss that only does it for the grift. He thinks they owe him a favor now.
Link to video: https://nitter.net/MorePerfectUS/status/1910340290260463771#m
Video of Trump Bragging About Enriching His Billionaire Pals Draws Outrage
The video doesn’t show evidence of this being a planned out endeavour.
For it to be grift, those people would have had to benefitted from the dip in some way. But that’s not what this shows, it’s just billionaires having their shares go down in value because of trumps idiocy and then back up from the whiplash when he erratically reversed course.
Spraytan is trying to ingratiate himself to these rich assholes by taking credit for their gains by wilfully ignoring their losses were inflicted by him.
This is not to say that no one in the administration is using this for their own gains. It’s entirely likely that some are.
I’m just super sick of this narrative that Trump secretly has some master plan when we have 40+ years of well documented evidence about how stupid this man is.
I agree that the grift most likely came after the actions were decided. The guy in charge is absolutely a moron that acts solely on whims. It’s confusing because there are at least a couple people around with the grift agenda or their own plans that are feeding him ideas. So sometimes he uses a smart idea or he mixes what would have been a smart plan with something idiotic and/or some grift.
It’s why so many people are willing to kiss his ass. Because if you do it at the right time and you’re lucky, you get temporary control of the US government.
I don’t think Trump is an idiot anymore. I think he’s playing a persona just like Borris Johnson. It’s a cover for him. It’s not his stupidity that’s harming us, it’s his self-centered, ego and greed driven maliciousness thats destroying our futures.
He’s not a stupid person. He’s an evil person.
Oh my gourd please stop
He is a failed nepo baby whose only successes in life were being a hired hand on a reality tv show and accidentally stumbling into politics via undisguised racism.
He
Is
A
Fucking
Moron
He could be insane and doing it for graft. He obviously sees himself like a mobster and tries to operate like one. My theory is he wants to individually negotiate tariffs to solicit bribes from businesses and foreign countries. It’s not exactly 4d chess. He just knows he has the power to pressure the richest and most powerful people on the planet, so he’s going to use that power to enrich himself and family. I don’t think he actually understands much about tariffs or much of anything though.
Also, the evidence of insider trading and market manipulation is pretty convincing to me. I don’t think that was the original intention, but Trump, or those around him saw the opportunity and took it.
If only we had 4 years of this exact behavior to judge him by to predict he may act like this…
He only got more insane during the stretch from 2020-2024. The insanity was on full display during the 2024 race. I don’t understand what’s wrong with our electorate.
I don’t understand what’s wrong with our electorate.
brain damage im pretty sure.
“Might”?
It’s warranted. He might be insane or he might be insider trading and enriching himself and friends with his actions.
My non-existent money is on the latter.
Two things can be true at once. These animals don’t realize they’re pushing the rest of us into the arms of China. Going to war with them is suicidal, but America seems intent on swallowing her own lead.
Nah, these guys want a war. War is incredibly profitable, can last forever especially against a near-peer, and wartime presidents tend to get power expansions. They’re hoping this is the push they need to go full Palpatine and say “well we’re in a war, no elections until the war is done, also we’re taking a page from Lincoln and suspending habeas.”
I know it’s fun to circle-jerk around these headlines, but it’s a misdirection to give lay-people something titter about because it’s too difficult to explain what’s really happening. His behaviour actually is rational, he’s just an idiot.
For Trump’s entire life, the US stocks/bonds markets have mapped closely to market greed/fear respectively. When the market gets spooked, they turn to more conservative investments, and US bonds have historically been that. (Government bonds are typically seen as the least risky investment, because it’s unlikely that a country falls apart and fails to pay its debts).
Fast forward to today, the US has a bunch of debt that needs refinancing this year, and lately, we haven’t been getting good interest rates on our bond sales (which indicates people are seeing US bonds as more risky than usual). So Trump said, “no problem, we just need to instill a bit of fear in the market to drive investors to bonds, which will cause the interest rate to drop, so we can refinance our debt at a better rate.” So he announces a bunch of nonsensical tariffs, which tanks the stock market, and just like he expected the bond market saw a dip in interest rates…for about a day, followed by a sharp increase! That sharp increase is why Trump agreed to pause the tariffs. Not only did it not work how he thought, it would seem he exposed a pronounced decline in trust for the US’ ability to pay its debts. Instead of running to US bonds, investors ran everywhere else (gold, the Swiss Franc, the Euro, etc.)
I don’t know what his next move is, but I have to think he’s feeling a bit desperate. He’s going to probably try to up his “blame the Democrats for their spending” game, of course without acknowledging that he has also only increased spending (even with all of DOGE’s hard fought, and definitely not half-baked, budget cuts).
But all his strategies seem to be overt market manipulation, and nothing else. I feel like it really highlights the difference between someone who can create actual value using intelligent planning and innovation, and someone who is a capitalist leech who has fooled themselves into thinking that buying low and selling high does something useful for someone.
I can guarantee you have put way more thought into this than he ever has, or will.
There is nothing to be gained from assuming your opponent is not acting rationally.
Oh, he’s acting rationally from the perspective of someone who thinks he has all the answers and wants to throw his weight around. He’s trying to be a tough business guy to China and is only backing off when someone finally manages to explain to him that it’s a bad idea in terms simple enough that he can sit through them.
I… respectfully disagree.
Every time I’ve made the mistake of thinking these idiots have some deeper plan I inevitably learn that there is in fact no plan.
Trump is old. He was desperate to get elected so he didn’t die in jail. He achieved that by promising to deport brown people, be mean to poor people, and implement tariffs. He’s doing those three things.
As regards the tariffs, he’s a kid kicking an ants nest to watch everyone scurry around. It pleases him greatly to be able to make some stupid post on truth social and watch the earth tilt on it’s axis.
He implemented the tariffs because he said he was going to and the yes-ken’s and yes-barbi’s told him “yes that would be amaze”.
You’re right, the bond market is what ultimately spooked him. When the interest rate volatility started climbing someone staged an intervention and told him how serious it was. He basically said that in the presser when he said people were getting twitchy or whatever he said.
However, there’s still no plan. That’s the only explanation for the on again off again flip flop don routine.
