What is the US really trying to achieve with all those tariffs?

[Raze]

I think China miscalculated. Trump realized he has more leverage if he gets the rest of the world closer to his side and isolates China.

If I was China I wouldn’t tariff the US but rather threaten countries that trade with the US but rely more on China with tariffs unless they tariffed the US, and offer them extremely generous trade deals if they maintain the tariffs.

This would have pressured the US without giving the US an excuse to increase tariffs on China in “retaliation”. Then use that to buy time and prepare while trump pushes away other countries until closer to the midterms then unleash harsh retaliation tariffs to pressure republicans who would be at risk of losing if the economy tanks.

Edited April 10 by Raze

[Apparition of Jack]

13 minutes ago, Raze said:

I think China miscalculated. Trump realized he has more leverage if he gets the rest of the world closer to his side and isolates China.

If I was China I wouldn’t tariff the US but rather threaten countries that trade with the US but rely more on China with tariffs unless they tariffed the US, and offer them extremely generous trade deals if they maintain the tariffs.

This would have pressured the US without giving the US an excuse to increase tariffs on China in “retaliation”. Then use that to buy time and prepare while trump pushes away other countries until closer to the midterms then unleash harsh retaliation tariffs to pressure republicans who would be at risk of losing if the economy tanks.

America already had perfect trade deals with everyone they needed to 

This is like a farmer threatening to burn 25% of his crops unless people sold him more candles (he doesn’t need candles)

It’s pure nonsense

[AION]

5 hours ago, PurpleTree said:

Order out of Chaos

Ordo ab Chao

out of chaos comes order

It‘s a freemasonry saying.

 

Used to love the conspiracy theories about it.

That is what Peterson says too

[Leo Gura]

8 minutes ago, AION said:

That is what Peterson says too

We could use that logic to rationalize a Marxist revolution:

Behead the rich!

Out of chaos will come order!

Clever bit of Epistemic Scoundrelry

Edited April 10 by Leo Gura

[AION]

8 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

We could use that logic to rationalize a Marxist revolution:

Behead the rich!

Out of chaos will come order!

Clever bit of Epistemic Scoundrelry

Out of chaos can come more chaos too if you don't know what you are doing lol

[Apparition of Jack]

As funny as it is to dunk on Trump the sad reality is that a lot of regular people are going to be fucked over by this. Expect poverty rates to rise in the coming months.

Edited April 10 by Apparition of Jack

[FourCrossedWands]

I have said it before and I will say it again:

Trump has always been obsessed with the stock market going up. He has been trying to force the FED lower the rates since his first term, so the stock market could go up.

Now, he has seen the stock market went down too much to fast, so he backed off and turned 180 degrees. All his actions are to make the stock market go up as much as possible at the end of his second term, so he will look "good" and his cronies will make a lot of money.

Now you can decide if you want to be part of it, or stay away from the devil.

[Leo Gura]

14 minutes ago, FourCrossedWands said:

Now you can decide if you want to be part of it, or stay away from the devil.

Problem is, Trump lacks self-control.

He's like a bipolar boyfriend who beats you one day and then love-bombs you the next day. And you never know which it will be today.

Sick MAGA people may actually enjoy that roller-coaster.

Edited April 10 by Leo Gura

[FourCrossedWands]

I don't know. He even tweeted to his followers before he officially announced the pause on the tariffs. Seems like some kind of a plan to me. He wants to be popular among his circles, which means he's not completely mad.

This to me is a proof he is still relatively predictable and these tariffs are nothing but a theatre.

[Leo Gura]

Don't forget that Trump is pretty cowardly under the facade. I don't think he has the balls to do the kind of stuff like a proper dictator would do, like a Putin.

[FourCrossedWands]

15 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Don't forget that Trump is pretty cowardly under the facade. I don't think he has the balls to do the kind of stuff like a proper dictator would do, like a Putin.

Yes, Trump and Musk are like a parody version of the nazi Germany.

[Leo Gura]

Trump's weakness is that at the end of the day I think he really wants to be loved.

Putin has no such weakness.

This is really the only thing that might save America.

LOVE wins after all

Edited April 10 by Leo Gura

[Elliott]

4 hours ago, Raze said:

I think China miscalculated. Trump realized he has more leverage if he gets the rest of the world closer to his side and isolates China.

If I was China I wouldn’t tariff the US but rather threaten countries that trade with the US but rely more on China with tariffs unless they tariffed the US, and offer them extremely generous trade deals if they maintain the tariffs.

This would have pressured the US without giving the US an excuse to increase tariffs on China in “retaliation”. Then use that to buy time and prepare while trump pushes away other countries until closer to the midterms then unleash harsh retaliation tariffs to pressure republicans who would be at risk of losing if the economy tanks.

This does the opposite of that, this isolates the u.s. and pushes everyone toward China. China is salivating at trumps stupidity, they egged this on. A month ago when trump started this diarrhea fire, China put out an official statement saying they're ready for any kind of war with the u.s., tarrif, trade, or military.

Throw in Russia not stopping and trump starting war with Iran, the world is there's for the taking. Heck, even Japan and South Korea are working with China against the u.s. now.

Edited April 10 by Elliott

[Basman]

I think Trump is just misunderstood... He's not okay 😔.

[zazen]

4 hours ago, Elliott said:

This does the opposite of that, this isolates the u.s. and pushes everyone toward China. China is salivating at trumps stupidity, they egged this on. A month ago when trump started this diarrhea fire, China put out an official statement saying they're ready for any kind of war with the u.s., tarrif, trade, or military.

Throw in Russia not stopping and trump starting war with Iran, the world is there's for the taking. Heck, even Japan and South Korea are working with China against the u.s. now.

Correct. Also EU and China co-ordinating:

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-pencils-in-china-summit-for-july/

I see MAGA on X spinning this as a “Art of the deal” and laughing smugly at the world. What deal? A higher bond yield making everything more expensive, the world seeing the US as a unreliable bully who can tear up free trade agreements with even its allies and neighbours..

I believe there is a method to the madness, yet the method is a mad one drunk on exceptionalism and arrogance.

Trump says he’s dropped universal tariffs to 10% to “reward” the world for not retaliating - but then singles out China who did. Never mind that the EU and Canada was retaliating - as that wouldn’t fit the narrative and optics of attempting to isolate China.

Let’s keep in mind that EU+China+Canada represent almost half of US trade - which is now in question. But this is a win according to MAGA.

What they’re trying to do is a hard de-coupling with China, and coerce others to do the same. Sure there’s insider trading that will make them money along the way - but that is a distraction from the larger game at play. Trading happens regardless and finance bros are riding whatever wave they catch. This is gross though: https://x.com/megatron_ron/status/1910238378064257143?s=46&t=DuLUbFRQFGpB8oo7PwRglQ

They want globalization to continue, despite their rhetoric against it. They just want China to be ejected from that globalization. They also want others to share the burden of empire, that benefits them at the expense of others. The table is set - this 90 day pause is where negotiations will take place to impose this new order.

One of the concessions expected: https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-says-eu-must-buy-350b-of-us-energy-to-get-tariff-relief/

 

This is what they mean by burden sharing and tariff relief:

They want to vassalize their “partners” even more - hopefully with Vaseline so the humiliation ritual doesn’t hurt as much to those that bend.

They want the benefits of empire without the downsides. And the world to subsidize it with tribute.

They’re selling America Inc, like a business. The large consumer market are the goods (trade), their security umbrella is the service (SaaS - security as a service)

The US empire is about to FAFO how hot the flaming dragons flames are. Good to add some humour to lighten the mood in these times 😂

Edited April 10 by zazen

[Breakingthewall]

6 hours ago, FourCrossedWands said:

Yes, Trump and Musk are like a parody version of the nazi Germany.

🤣Great description 

[Breakingthewall]

7 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Don't forget that Trump is pretty cowardly under the facade. I don't think he has the balls to do the kind of stuff like a proper dictator would do, like a Putin.

If it weren't for that, we would be on the brink of the apocalypse.

[Lyubov]

9 hours ago, Apparition of Jack said:

As funny as it is to dunk on Trump the sad reality is that a lot of regular people are going to be fucked over by this. Expect poverty rates to rise in the coming months.

What’s even sadder is half of them probably voted for Trump and most of them would vote for Trump again 

[Lyubov]

7 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Trump's weakness is that at the end of the day I think he really wants to be loved.

Putin has no such weakness.

This is really the only thing that might save America.

LOVE wins after all

Putin isn’t an ego maniac like Trump. He did some stuff for propaganda but that was more so a strategy and he is an elusive figure and stays out of the spotlight. He’s a strong man and a dictator but you can tell he’s doing things much more out of a stage blue belief system about serving Russia, rebuilding an empire, righting a wrong. And Putin is a far more skilled statesman. Trump has MAGA but it’s more just boomer wishful thinking when they spew out some idea or complaint, Trump has always been it for himself / his family and just likes the attention cause people think he’s funny and “owns the libs.” This is why Trump is so unbelievably dastardly to anyone with half a brain. The guy was a reality tv start who bankrupted his business before he capitalized on the uneducated and fear based social media algorithms. He’s always been a phony but most people are too lost to see that. 

[PurpleTree]

1 hour ago, Lyubov said:

He’s a strong man and a dictator but you can tell he’s doing things much more out of a stage blue belief system about serving Russia, rebuilding an empire, righting a wrong.. 

Sounds like Hitler.