3 ms·

China is the real target, others tariffs are mostly a smoke screen and considered a potentially beneficial side effect.

llm_nerd 2y ago
>China is the real target, To put it impolitely, bullshit. Zero rational analysis comes to this conclusion. Trump began this idiocy by attacking Canada and Mexico, the very countries he triumphantly signed his trade agreement with just five years ago. He lied -- that's what he does -- about a made up Fentanyl emergency, but it's clear the guy loves tariffs (he's been going on about this for years, and still people try to pretend that isn't what this is about...amazingly everyone just assumes that everything out of his mouth is a lie). Outside of oil and gas the US has (or rather had) a massive trade surplus with Canada, but oh well that's a thing of the past now and will never return. Then he attacked everyone else. He did the same thing in term one. He could easily have gotten everyone onboard with strategies to contain or slow China, but instead he pushed everyone else away. He had adults in the room containing his profound sabotage of the US the first time, but this time he's going to speedrun the country to dissolution. I get that the Trump faithful are desperately trying to do the 4D chess thing now. It will never work. The clown has no idea what he is doing, and has build such a cult no one can tell him how profoundly stupid he is. His treasury secretary is likely to quit in days.
- stephc_int13 2y ago
  I am not a Trump fan (pretty much the opposite) and you are right that this strategy is dumb is very likely to fail spectacularly. But I maintain that the real core thing behind this chaos is about China.
  - llm_nerd 2y ago
    Other more rational people have absolutely tried to make it about China. About trying to broach a strategic advantage. Early in the nonsense with Canada, Lutnick and Bessent repeatedly tried to give an offramp by broaching the possibility of a revised CUSMA / NAFTA that included more coordinated action on China. The problem, though, is that Trump is a catastrophically stupid imbecile / self-serving criminal, with his administration of Fox News plastic face morons and criminals -- I will not mince words about it, and every American should feel shameful how far they have fallen -- so all the attempts are for naught. Trump kept barrelling ahead like a particularly dumb rhino, to the net effect of significant damage to the US. Like, at this point everyone realizes that China is going to take Taiwan right, and it will 100% be because of Donald Trump. The only thing stopping them before was concerns about relationships, trade, being a pariah. Now you have the US repeatedly boasting about taking Greenland, about making Canada a state, and spitting in the faces of every ally, all while pandering to dictator garbage like Putin. Yeah, one China will be Trump's legacy. And from that, the percolating violence that will grow. It cannot be overstated how catastrophic that clown will be for the US and for the world in general, and he's just getting started. Nuclear proliferation has a decade ahead of going absolutely wild. It is a many-magnitudes more dangerous world, and Americans that think they will be immune from what is coming, courtesy of that orange faced clown, are in for a very rude reality.

>China is the real target, To put it impolitely, bullshit. Zero rational analysis comes to this conclusion. Trump began this idiocy by attacking Canada and Mexico, the very countries he triumphantly signed his trade agreement with just five years ago. He lied -- that's what he does -- about a made up Fentanyl emergency, but it's clear the guy loves tariffs (he's been going on about this for years, and still people try to pretend that isn't what this is about...amazingly everyone just assumes that everything out of his mouth is a lie). Outside of oil and gas the US has (or rather had) a massive trade surplus with Canada, but oh well that's a thing of the past now and will never return. Then he attacked everyone else. He did the same thing in term one. He could easily have gotten everyone onboard with strategies to contain or slow China, but instead he pushed everyone else away. He had adults in the room containing his profound sabotage of the US the first time, but this time he's going to speedrun the country to dissolution. I get that the Trump faithful are desperately trying to do the 4D chess thing now. It will never work. The clown has no idea what he is doing, and has build such a cult no one can tell him how profoundly stupid he is. His treasury secretary is likely to quit in days.

stephc_int13 2y ago
I am not a Trump fan (pretty much the opposite) and you are right that this strategy is dumb is very likely to fail spectacularly. But I maintain that the real core thing behind this chaos is about China.
- llm_nerd 2y ago
  Other more rational people have absolutely tried to make it about China. About trying to broach a strategic advantage. Early in the nonsense with Canada, Lutnick and Bessent repeatedly tried to give an offramp by broaching the possibility of a revised CUSMA / NAFTA that included more coordinated action on China. The problem, though, is that Trump is a catastrophically stupid imbecile / self-serving criminal, with his administration of Fox News plastic face morons and criminals -- I will not mince words about it, and every American should feel shameful how far they have fallen -- so all the attempts are for naught. Trump kept barrelling ahead like a particularly dumb rhino, to the net effect of significant damage to the US. Like, at this point everyone realizes that China is going to take Taiwan right, and it will 100% be because of Donald Trump. The only thing stopping them before was concerns about relationships, trade, being a pariah. Now you have the US repeatedly boasting about taking Greenland, about making Canada a state, and spitting in the faces of every ally, all while pandering to dictator garbage like Putin. Yeah, one China will be Trump's legacy. And from that, the percolating violence that will grow. It cannot be overstated how catastrophic that clown will be for the US and for the world in general, and he's just getting started. Nuclear proliferation has a decade ahead of going absolutely wild. It is a many-magnitudes more dangerous world, and Americans that think they will be immune from what is coming, courtesy of that orange faced clown, are in for a very rude reality.