Summary

U.S. CEOs and business executives are alarmed as Donald Trump remains firm on imposing high tariffs on U.S. allies, despite warnings from economists about potential economic harm.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump’s late-night social media announcements have blindsided both his advisers and business leaders, leaving them scrambling to react.

While Trump consults some advisers, like Marco Rubio and Treasury pick Scott Bessent, his unilateral approach limits their influence.

The uncertainty has left business leaders struggling to find ways to alter his stance on trade policies.

343 points

How the actual fuck are people “blindsided” by this?

permalink
report
reply
170 points

Maybe the leopards started with the eyes.

permalink
report
parent
reply
114 points

You ever talk to c-level execs? Many of them simply aren’t smart. They’re just very aggressive and confident which gives the appearance of intelligence.

permalink
report
parent
reply
39 points

A lot of times attractiveness plays a big role too. In modern corporate america being attractive will get you further than being smart.

permalink
report
parent
reply
32 points

Studies have shown that something as simple as being tall makes people be more likely to be looked towards as leaders.

permalink
report
parent
reply
9 points

You ever talk to c-level execs? Many of them simply aren’t smart

A large percentage of them are the embodiment of the Peter principle

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

A-Students work for B-Students in companies owned by C-Students, which are financed by D-Students, while the hedge funds owned by the sociopathic F-Students short sell the whole thing to make sure they have enough spare cash to buy a new library wing at Harvard, so their F-Student-kids get in.

permalink
report
parent
reply
66 points

CEOs aren’t the brightest.

permalink
report
parent
reply
40 points

Because folks do their 5 minute research by reading conservative mainstream news outlets and safe space enclaves that Tariffs are good.

Talking points to the contrary are not allowed, so they get to find out the hard way.

permalink
report
parent
reply
24 points

To be fair. The message they’re receiving is that tariffs will hurt the people that deserve it. And they’re absolutely right. But while they’re suffering, so will the rest of America.

permalink
report
parent
reply
15 points

Remember that Trump lies about everything, often in both directions. Everyone knows this, including his supporters. That gives his supporters the mental freedom to make up whateverthefuck policy positions they like and find proof that they are Trump’s real plan.

Donald Trump is the human version of a Bible. If you’re a Believer, god says he will implement your Desire. If you’re a Heretic, god says he will destroy the world. All with the same words.

permalink
report
parent
reply
11 points

Because they thought it would only happen to others and they’d be fine. Guess the leopard with a rooster hat is coming to roar and eat faces.

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

But… But… Genderless bathrooms! /s

permalink
report
parent
reply
172 points

He’s a Russian asset, what do they think he is going to do anything that’s in the US’s best interest? He’s here to burn it to the ground and line his pockets with what’s not ashes.

Honestly at this point I don’t know how anyone can’t see the obvious.

permalink
report
reply
31 points

What can we do besides impotently complain about this on the internet?

permalink
report
parent
reply
25 points

Build connections in your local community. Organize and elect your candidates at the local level

permalink
report
parent
reply
25 points

With all the anger about the dead CEO lately and rightfully angry people in glee over the violence, I truly think we could accomplish more with a general strike. Crash the fake economy built on fraud. If wall street looses billions a day in their fictional numbers they throw around we would show them real power. This would accomplish more than any dead CEO ever could.

Saw a post where the Trump administration is eyeing pulling FDIC from our banks! They already plan on crashing the economy. Stealing all your money, and making the US in Russia’s image.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/trump-advisers-reported-plan-ease-banking-oversight-may-not-get-required-support-2024-12-13/

If we beat them to the punch we might still have our bank account money at least while their fictional money evaporates into thin air.

One thing the real rich people won’t stand for is their money vanishing. If we hold out long enough the real wealthy will likely turn on him, hell he might fall out a window!

permalink
report
parent
reply
16 points

It’s going to be hard to convince people to strike when so many of them are in massive debt and live paycheck-to-paycheck.

When you can barely feed your kids on what little you’re paid, you’re a lot less willing to strike. Especially if you aren’t in a union and can be fired for it. And the corpos know it and rely on it.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

I never understood the whole “they won’t stand for losing money” tactic. What you’re asking them to do with a general strike is to relinquish their money to the masses and reduce the wealth gap significantly. They won’t do that. They will do literally anything, including forcing people back to work for them with violence from mercenary groups (or robot dogs, which is horrifying to me) before they submit to the will of the people. A general strike would be a good step, but if you think it will go over well for the working class without any bloodshed then you should learn about how the elites have treated striking in the past.

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

It was said below but I really think that there needs to be more people that are willing to run for office with a more progressive message.

I know it’s not as sexy as revolution or CEO-cide but it really is a better way to make changes without fucking the country up completely.

So how the fuck do you run for office ? I don’t know but there are resources that can help. If you don’t want to run that’s fair but as you mentioned the time to just sit around and bitch online in an echo chamber is done. Progressives are going to have to find a way to make their voices heard and in a way that isn’t talking down to people.

Note: I get the anger and the desire to want to scare the fuck out of the ruling class. But murder isn’t the only thing that the ruling class is scared of, they also don’t want people to vote for their own self-interest. They don’t want the people to demand billionaires pay more in taxes. And a significant group of progressive politicians would scare the shit out of the established ruling class.

permalink
report
parent
reply
117 points

They thought they’d vote anti-tax first, then pushover trump on the tariffs when they had the time. Looks like they were wrong.

More faces being eaten.

permalink
report
reply
54 points
*

If this was his first go-around I could see some rationale to that idea. But holy shit, has there been a case of collective amnesia among business ‘leaders’?!!

They knew exactly what they were getting. Because we’ve seen all this before. Usually this is the definition of madness. But in this case it should be the definition of stupidity.

This same surprised Pikachu shit is going to happen over and over and over again over the next 4+ years. Even right now, the media keep assuming what he says is what he will do. And I have no idea why. He demonstrated in his first term that at least half of what he promises he either backtracks on he doesn’t follow through on. Why they think things will be different this time is beyond me.

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points
*

has there been a case of collective amnesia among business ‘leaders’?!!

Business leaders in the last decade or 2 have increasingly been laser focused on nothing beyond the next 6 months - AKA short term returns.

The long term survival of their business or what has happened in previous years are simply not part of their thought process when the next quarter’s profits are all that matters.

permalink
report
parent
reply
25 points

The one singular upside of Cheeto 2.0 is that I’ll get to enjoy some guilty schadenfreude as the face eating leopard starts eating the faces of the party-for-face-eating-leopards.

permalink
report
parent
reply
71 points

This guy has tanked all of his previous enterprises due to his poor decision making and lack of knowledge. What in their right minds made them think this would be any different?

permalink
report
reply
67 points

Anyone else feel like the goal IS inflation?? I feel like they’re trying to contrstruct a Weimar Republic situation with this to push people further right. I hope I’m wrong, but this feels like they’re really trying to come up with an excuse to kill a lot of people.

permalink
report
reply

News

!news@lemmy.world

Create post

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

Community stats

  • 14K

    Monthly active users

  • 10K

    Posts

  • 197K

    Comments