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Huh 30% of our lumber just got 50% more expensive. Good thing we don't have shortages of affordable housing that need new construction to solve. Brilliant stuff
by robmccoll 1mo ago
Huh 30% of our lumber just got 50% more expensive. Good thing we don't have shortages of affordable housing that need new construction to solve. Brilliant stuff Donald. Truly some 4D chess moves.
- watutalkinbout 1mo agoYou still think any of his moves are driven by 'what's good for the US'? I think it's motivated entirely by schemes to stuff his pockets with money.
- rapnie 1mo agoHe's just running a kleptocracy, and doing so reasonably well.
- rjzzleep 1mo agoPeople still happily buy his tokens though, and then blame China for getting scammed.
- bdangubic 1mo agoNot China’s fault but Biden’s :)
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- trueno 1mo agoindeed. i'm sure he's surrounded by some lumber moguls stateside that are going to get very rich from this. very russia coded. i don't doubt deregulation on clearcutting as well as removing land ownership and no logging in national forests & protected lands.... are around the corner with this admin. feel like they attempted that during his last term with attempting to disgrace park rangers over wildfires and saying they didn't rake the leaves on the ground or whatever.
- ETH_start 1mo ago[flagged]
- cammikebrown 1mo agoOh no! Not the implosion of democracy in real time!
- forestrywat 1mo agoMy friend, sometimes the truth is partisan. And in those cases it absolutely belongs on HN.
- ivewonyoung 1mo agoThe issue is that it only goes in one direction of partisanship.
- dredmorbius 1mo agoThat is hardly the Truth's fault.
- forestrywat 1mo agoSo you are suggesting less truth is good? That we should come here and post lies because that's more fair? Absurd.
- watutalkinbout 1mo agoI've noticed pretty heavy partisanship here on [flat earth] vs [spherical earth]. Shocking really.
- valleyer 1mo ago"Reality has a well-known liberal bias."
- FpUser 1mo agoYou should try programming language X vs language Y, cloud vs on-prem, Framework A vs Framework B, OOP vs Composition etc., etc. HN is as partisan as it gets.
- hammock 1mo ago[flagged]
- realusername 1mo agoHow it seems to work from his past attempts is that the business pays a bribe to try to lift it
- ekabod 1mo agoMaybe US lumber producers lined his pockets. Probably not.
- Avicebron 1mo agoI don't cutting down our forests either but the stated goal of the whole exercise is to improve the US's businesses and self reliance on local industry...
- Arodex 1mo agoAnd the unstated goal is to satisfy a senile crook stuck in the 70s (maybe the 1870s)...
- estearum 1mo ago"The stated goal" is stupid as fuck, especially when it comes to our literal immediate neighbor who has been a steadfast ally for the last 100+ years.
- forestrywat 1mo agoWhy would anyone, even one of his supporters, care about the stated goal? The man has decades of pursuing goals other than his stated goals. You'd have to be profoundly naive.
- Avicebron 1mo ago> Why would anyone, even one of hoods supporters, care about the stated goal? Because regardless of the execution, this is a forcing function around a broader topic about prosperity in a nation. Tangentially it's also about potential future conflict with China (I hope not!). Both of which I think are much more interesting of a discussion than base partisan mud-slinging.
- nielsbot 1mo agodon’t forget his weak ego
- dboreham 1mo agoThe "make more money" rationale is way too logical vs how this guy's brain operates. It's better understood as being like Pro Wrestling. Except the "ring" is the world economy.
- Terretta 1mo ago> “motivated entirely … to stuff his pockets” Someone's pockets, must be gnomes: • PHASE 1: COLLECT UNDERPANTS. (tariff "foreign" goods desired by Americans, collect upon import from companies, clarify spiked prices experienced by consumers ‘entirely’ due to prior admin policies) • PHASE 2: … (let simmer) • PHASE 3: PROFIT. ("return" tariff costs to companies)
- estearum 1mo agoApril 2: Trump "liberates" Americans from low-cost goods by placing tariffs at 46% on Vietname May 16: Vietnam approves $1.5B Trump hotel project (https://apnews.com/article/vietnam-trump-golf-estate-investment-f2aa09af5467654dff4dcf19fcdc25c9 https://apnews.com/article/vietnam-trump-golf-estate-investm...) July 2: US lowers tariffs on Vietnam to 20% (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/DCPD-202500738/pdf/DCPD-202500738.pdf https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/DCPD-202500738/pdf/DCPD-...)
- jaynate 1mo agoThe underpants gnomes. Well played!
- m0llusk 1mo agoIt's worse than that. He is so completely off that he thinks this means US builders will chose to buy US lumber instead and that will work out positively for everyone in the US.
- iAMkenough 1mo agoSimultaneously believes that flooding the market with foreign beef to lower beef prices will benefit American cattlemen.
- watutalkinbout 1mo agoHe doesn't give a shit about US lumber or US builders. If he isn't stuffing his pockets, he's leveraging the populist playbook. In this case, 'scapegoating'. But let's be honest, he likely has a huge amount of debt. Before he came into office he almost certainly fixed the interest on that debt knowing he could blow inflation through the roof and inflate it away.
- brador 1mo agoHe wakes up and flips a coin. He doesn’t care anyway and there’s no consequences.
- Jcampuzano2 1mo agoIf it was a coin flip, there'd be a 50% chance he did good things every day and we'd have a significantly better outcome than we do now. Its many times worse than a coin clip.
- dpkirchner 1mo agoThe coin is to decide which terrible person he is going to listen to. And his weirdo followers love him for it.
- Teknomadix 1mo agoIndeed. Donald Trump is only the visible tip of an iceberg. Below the waterline it's a massive and all encompassing corruption, comprised of an organized multi-national cabal that touches every part of the globe and which has its roots in the world starting well before WWI. The goal of which appears has always been to enrich the people on the inside while sewing chaos. To these figures, war and peril have always been more profitable than making peace. https://annas-archive.gl/md5/2275fbf2d96f518e54c2b72edf163f85 https://annas-archive.gl/md5/2275fbf2d96f518e54c2b72edf163f8...
- pkulak 1mo agoHe's already got more money than he can spend. As dementia sets in, he's been shifting more and more to pure emotion-based decision making.
- foogazi 1mo agoand votes
- sghiassy 1mo agoArt of the Deal
- Loughla 1mo agoHonestly though, it seems like he would rather have everyone lose than take a chance that anyone but him wins. Even positive reporting of the man makes him out to have a massively fragile ego.
- padjo 1mo agoHe fundamentally does not understand non zero sum dynamics.
- Avicebron 1mo agoThe business-as-usual multi-international neoliberal supply chain model wasn't benefiting a vast number of Americans with no solution other than "don't complain look at these metrics we made up, you're doing great, don't be upset we are making billions while you struggle to afford to fix your teeth or fix your car". Something had to break and break it did. If you are so non-zero sum, what would you suggest as the fix for those issues if we kept the old model?
- g8oz 1mo agoProgressive taxation.
- padjo 1mo agoAmericans are upset about not having any money while being the richest and most powerful country in the world. They are throwing a temper tantrum about a world order they created and are the main beneficiary of.
- dbdr 1mo agoThere's a class of americans that didn't benefit from that world order. However, they elected someone who pretended he was going to help them, and actually is making it even worse for them and better for those who were already benefiting.
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- softwaredoug 1mo agoLumber is not part of these tariffs. These are on a narrow set of products. Lumber is a different long standing trade dispute going back to the 80s unrelated to the industries targeted by the 50% tariffs. Trump created a 10% Lumber tariff in Sept 2025, but it was already tariffed before that. Canadian lumber today isn’t suddenly 50% more expensive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada%E2%80%93United_States_softwood_lumber_dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada%E2%80%93United_States_s...
- sanderjd 1mo agoThis does not seem to be accurate, from the reporting I've read. Do you have a source?
- softwaredoug 1mo agoThis article lists the specific industries. Lumber is not one of them. It lists Motor Vehicles, Alcohol, and Dairy as the largest industries. https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-of-us-trade-tariffs-hitting-canada-from-today-12355633 https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-of-us-trade-tariffs-hitti...
- bamboozled 1mo agoThe new duties are in addition to existing tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum and lumber. According to your own article lumber is included already You’re wrong. It was already 45%!
- softwaredoug 1mo agoYes the average is currently 45%. But that’s been like that since Sept 2025, when Trump increased it 10% with section 232 tariffs. Here’s the executive order https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/full_text/html/2025/10/06/2025-19482.html https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/full_text/html/202... The new 50% tariffs don’t suddenly make Canadian lumber more expensive. It was already expensive. This was all being negotiated together between Canada and US, but it’s not part of the new tariffs.
- thephyber 1mo agoI know you're being facetious, but his entire immigration policy is to deport a large part of the construction labor pool, so he was never had a chance to make housing more affordable.
- dbdr 1mo agoPlease be aware people reading don't know which country you are from, so using "our" is ambiguous. You could just as well have been Canadian, and it took extra deciphering to guess you're apparently from the US.
- xxs 1mo agoGiven "Donald" reference is beyond obvious, same if you know anything about trade, geography or housing issues.
- tigereyeTO 1mo agoBoth an American and a Canadian could reference Donald for the same reason: Donald imposed the tariffs. Canada also participates in trade, is located in the same geographic continent, and is also suffering housing issues. I too struggled to identify which “our” the comment referred to
- xxs 1mo agoGeography as in softwood forests, instead of the iconic maple leaf. In no way Canada would be importing 30%+ of its construction timber from the US. Canada is a major softwood timber exporter.
- uxp100 1mo agoDo you think Canada doesn’t have housing issues?
- dessimus 1mo agoThis comment seems exactly like the school room exercise where the teacher hands out a test with a paragraph of instructions that includes the text buried in it: "do not answer any questions below" and students rush through the test and fail because they didn't bother reading the entire comment before ripping off their own because "our" is ambiguous. There is plenty of context in the comment, even for non-North Americans, since its very unlikely "Donald" was referring to famed Canadian-actor Donald Sutherland. Or would you prefer every comment on HN to begin with: "As a/an $CountryDemonym..." or other requisite bona fides?
- inquirerGeneral 1mo ago[dead]
- kstenerud 1mo agoTrump is and always has been a one-trick-pony: Shock and awe with a ridiculously over-the-top threat to shake his opponent and anchor the discussion high, then "accept" a deal that's better than any that could have been achieved with a calm opponent (pure bullying). His second weapon is throwing a monkey wrench into the works after agreeing to something. Keep the opponent on their back heel. It works well, until it doesn't. Once you meet an opponent who stands firm no matter what you threaten, you lose your bargaining position. Carney is well-versed in this kind of negotiation.
- steveBK123 1mo agoRight it probably works in real estate if you aren’t dealing with the same trading partners often. It is a business where dirtbag behavior is the norm. May also explain why he stopped doing actual NYC RE dev and moved onto his licensing model in dozens of cities (new pools of suckers). But when every threat & walk back is covered in national media, and he is playing the same game with the same big trading partners .. it loses its effect. Similarly he’s quite old and certainly lost any touch he had.
- kstenerud 1mo agoCarney's speech yesterday was masterful: Another prominent justification for U.S. tariffs has been their claim that, since the United States runs, quote, a 'trade deficit' with Canada, we were 'ripping them off.' Also a quote. But the U.S.’s narrow merchandise trade deficit only exists because the U.S. buys so much of its energy from Canada. Canada fuels American growth: supplying 99 per cent of their natural gas imports, 85 per cent of their electricity imports, 60 per cent of their crude oil imports. I don’t think they want us to stop sending any of that energy.
- anonymars 1mo agoIran looks to have figured it out too
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- theoreticalmal 1mo agoIdk man I just took a trip to Forks, WA and the amount of lumber they had and were processing up there was insane
- foobarbecue 1mo agoNot sure if you're joking, but I remember noticing the same thing last time I spent time there (2017). Lumber yards tend to have a lot of lumber. It's kind of like when you drive by a feed lot and they have an implausible number of cows (the ones over in imperial valley amazed me). Also there's always tankers by my house in Manhattan Beach. These anecdotes are not economic indicators.
- csomar 1mo agoYes, everyone know a modern economy statistics work by what you can see with your naked eyes out there on the streets.
- chneu 1mo agoIdk about Washington but Oregon has increased logging a large amount over the last few years.
- rozap 1mo agoThe gas truck just came to the gas station on the corner and it's just crazy how big those things are, there's such a surplus of gas right now.
- bamboozled 1mo agoIt was already at 45% due to previous art of the deal moves.
- jLaForest 1mo agoThat orange shit stain has explicitly said he want to drive housing prices up not down
- mattmaroon 1mo agoYou gotta think long term. This is going to cause all those lumber companies to plant more forests and 40 years from now when they’re big enough boom, 3 new jobs servicing the autonomous tree harvesters.
- xattt 1mo agoAs a Canadian, I hope this crisatunity translates into rock-bottom prices for lumber at home.
- sheepscreek 1mo agoAmen.
- csoups14 1mo agoIn reality unfortunately it likely means mills will sit idle or shut down entirely. Prices might come down a little bit hopefully
- bryanlarsen 1mo agoPrice is set at the margin. If America is physically incapable of supplying 100% of its own lumber needs, then that Canadian lumber is the marginal good, and the price of 100% of lumber will go up, not just the Canadian stuff. Two things that will prevent that: - inertia - it's likely that Canadian lumber before the tariffs wasn't the marginal good, wasn't the highest cost supplier. If Canadian suppliers were making 10% more profit than the previously marginal supplier, the price will go up 40% instead of 50%, Canadian suppliers absorbing that 10%.
- forestrywat 1mo agoOr they'll raise prices by that ten percent and become the marginal supplier. No way they're going to accept a loss. (Many items shipped into the USA of late have tariff related fees.)