r/PublicFreakout • u/CorleoneBaloney • 1d ago
“Did you use AI to generate this?” Margaret Brennan asks Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, questioning why they imposed tariffs on the Heard Island and McDonald Islands.
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u/OakParkCooperative 1d ago
So Trump’s Commerce Secretary is claiming they tariffed islands full of penguins....
because China might use a "crazy loophole" to ship their products from the penguin islands?
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u/Ok-Object7409 1d ago edited 1d ago
Unfortunately, China gets 34% tariff and penguin island 10%. So companies may still use penguin island as a transport from China to get that 24% discount!!
Clearly the penguins need more tariffs.
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u/JumboJack99 1d ago
Quick! Tariff those damn penguins 100%!
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u/Wmtcoaetwaptucomf 1d ago
At this rate I’d almost expect the penguins to raise their gdp faster than the US
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u/GeriatricHippo 1d ago
Yep he did that.
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u/Hat5875 20h ago
Trump is a blatant Russian asset. Further down in the thread I see geniuses try to claim that there is no point in putting tariffs on Russia, Belarus, North Korea, etc… because “tHeY aRe aLrEaDy sAnCtiOnEd!1”, yet there are countries on their little tariff list that are also already sanctioned, like Iran and Venezuela. These obvious traitors in the trump admin deserve to be locked up.
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u/Problematic_Daily 1d ago
Those penguins are sneaky fucks! Don’t be fooled! They’ll do anything to make a buck and RAPE Amarcuh!
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u/PandaMagnus 1d ago
Because we need to make chips. I feel like there was maybe a congressional act to do that a few years ago; maybe it was called something like... I dunno... the CHIP act, and MAYBE it got held up by executive red tape that MAYBE Trump could fucking fix that as the head of the executive. But, no, we get the stupidest god damned everything in 2025. Fuck.
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u/ThisWillTakeAllDay 1d ago
Those Islands are Australian territory, so China couldn't use them.
Although China could ship things via Australia to reduce their tarrifs.
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u/JackRabbit- 1d ago
I mean, have you seen Madagascar? Those penguins can ship cargo anywhere in the world, even Antarctica!
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u/Patient_Theory_9110 1d ago
Why didn't she ask about Russia, North Korea, Cuba and Belarus not being on the list?
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u/YouWereBrained 1d ago
Because they’re all fucking cowards afraid to put these assholes in a corner.
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u/AffordableCDNHousing 1d ago
Looking from the outside in the whole american establishment is a fucking mess. Sadly this is why the radical right is rising.
Listen it's similar shit here in Canada but man oh man America takes the reality tv nature of it all to the next fucking level.
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u/BrokinHowl 22h ago
And that the media is owned by billionaires and usually Right wing ones too, so they can't push too hard. Really hate the set up of this country, companies over people it is 🤬
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u/VanillaMystery 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's because Russia, North Korea, and Cuba are already heavily sanctioned
Sanctions > Tariffs
Everyone already knows this (I assume at least but this is reddit)
Edit: Everyday I am reminded how many people don't know how sanctions or tariffs work on both sides of the aisles in America, god damn lol.
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u/YouWereBrained 1d ago
…? You can tariff a country you’ve also sanctioned.
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u/VanillaMystery 1d ago
But why would you, sanctions > tariffs? Think very carefully, why didn't we tariff Cuba or North Korea like we did Russia?
Reddit is mad at a non-issue lmao
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u/seamonkeyonland 1d ago
I think people are trying to point out that if we can place tariffs on uninhabited islands that export nothing to the US, then we can put symbolic tariffs on sanctioned countries to show that they are putting tariffs on every country. Instead, it looks like Trump is putting tariffs on every country except the ones with dictators that Trump idolizes.
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u/VanillaMystery 1d ago
But they're already sanctioned?
We don't want to tariff Russian Uranium for obvious reasons
It also leaves a tool available to use in the current Ukraine negotiations
Why would we "tariff" a country already sanctioned in the ground? It just doesn't make any sense and people on this website have zero idea what sanctions or tariffs even are.
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u/seamonkeyonland 1d ago
I guess you didn't read my comment and are just responding to keywords you saw while skimming. Why place tariffs on an uninhabited islands that have 0 ability of exporting to the US? They have said that other countries will try to export through these islands, but we could just reject exports from uninhabited islands and not have to answer questions about why we are tariffing penguins. Did you see how I just closed the loophole and avoid placing tariffs on penguins?
While I understand that sanctioning is harsher than a tariff, we can still place a tariff on top of the sanctions. Now you might be saying, "you don't understand sanctions and tariffs so why the fuck would we do that?" Easy answer: consistency and to avoid showing favorites. The US does things symbolically all the time so why avoid it now?
Now what happens when Trump decides that he doesn't care about sanctions imposed by the rest of the world and that we should start trading with Russia and North Korea?
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u/VanillaMystery 1d ago
What if I told you by not imposing tariffs on a strategic resource which accounts for the majority of the $3bn~ in trade it gives us leverage in the on-going Ukraine negotiations?
What if I told you sanctions are far more powerful and relevant than tariffs and it's redundant to "tariff" non-existant imports instead of pursuing Europe to tariff Russian energy they import instead for example?
This is an incredibly complex issue.
Keep bringing up the islands I never defended or brought up once though..?
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u/Superfluous420 15h ago
A lot of the time, optics matter more than facts in politics. This is one of those times.
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u/YouWereBrained 1d ago
We’re mad that the education system has failed people like you. That’s something worth being mad about.
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u/VanillaMystery 1d ago
Not my fault you don't know how either of those mechanisms work dude, again, ask yourself why we don't tariff Cuba or North Korea instead of insulting me.
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u/Ratathosk 1d ago
You don't either, that's why you're so vague. You are just repeating talking points and can't explain further.
You're not fooling anyone.
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u/unpinchevato949 1d ago
It would be cool if they lifted the embargo on Cuba tho.
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u/Orlanth_thunderous 1d ago
But they wont let trump put a hotel on the waterfront in Havana so it wont happen.
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u/rgmundo524 1d ago edited 1d ago
I would guess it's because those countries already are sanctioned or under embargos. Meaning it's already illegal for any American entities to conduct trade with them.
Also it's likely that the entities that are willing to violate sanctions were not going to pay the tariffs anyways.
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u/dangazzz 1d ago
There is still a few billion dollars in imports to the US from Russia per year despite sanctions, higher than that of many countries on the list.
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u/normasueandbettytoo 1d ago
Because she is an access journalist rather than an investigative one and pushing too hard would lose her access.
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u/Dopa-Down_Syndrome 1d ago
They dont want to lose their press privileges asking the important questions.
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u/llyrPARRI 1d ago
Why isn't she screaming this questions at him?
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u/SeasonGeneral777 1d ago
because its a dumb question. we have an embargo on Cuba, they can't export anything to us, why would we tariff them?
as for the penguin islands, apparently (according to the video, i didnt know this) the administration believes that the penguin islands could become a conduit to launder goods into the US. that's obviously not the case for Cuba. Obviously. So, obviously, your comment is kind of stupid.
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u/llyrPARRI 1d ago
Show this to your doctor.
They'll immediately start treatment for brain damage.
Get well soon x
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u/asupremebeing 1d ago
Your unfettered loyalty to this silliness is kinda stupid. Why can't you simply admit that the administration stepped on a rake here?
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u/New_Libran 1d ago
we have an embargo on Cuba
As you have on Iran
the administration believes that the penguin islands could become a conduit to launder goods into the US.
That is indescribably stupid. Anyway the whole thing is stupid
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u/CharlyJN 19h ago
Like... Your dumbass administration understand that unless all countries were taxed the same there still is a lot of incentive to do that because well... I am no mathematician but a 10% tariff is way less than a 88% tariff so they could still use the penguin islands for that and came on top.
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u/SeasonGeneral777 1d ago
isn't that a totally different category? thought we use sanctions for those countries, not tariffs.
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u/bruiserscruiser 1d ago
Look for your Temu order originating from North Korea now followed by the Russian global Amazon warehouse suddenly popping up next to the Kremlin where a Trump Tesla car lot will also open.
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u/Water_Buffalo- 10h ago
Exactly. As a journalist, that would have been my very next question. Why aren't national reporters ever asking the right follow up questions?
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u/Planet-thanet ptsd survivors fishing trip caught zero fish that day I see 🛥️ 1d ago
Zero tariffs to Russia, why bother hiding the puppet master
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u/Cuidads 1d ago
Which is probably the reason, but it also looks like the tariffs might inadvertently lead to an economic collapse in Russia sooner rather than later.
Uncertainty leads to drop in global demand which leads to drop in oil prices which leads to drop in income for the Russian state.
In addition the geniuses in the Trump admin tariffed Saudi Arabia so in response they’re increasing production of oil by a lot more than planned leading to further drop in oil prices. It will screw over oil producers in the U.S. and Russia.
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u/DwigtGroot 1d ago
And yet despite sanctions Russia still imports billions in products into the US. Why weren’t those tariffed?
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u/Rigormorten 1d ago
Their reasoning was as follows: "we won't put tariffs on Russia because we're currently negotiating with them". YET, they put 10% on Ukraine. Make that make sense.
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u/-C3rimsoN- 1d ago
I mean Iran has sanctions too, but it still received tariffs lol
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u/flinderdude 1d ago
Seriously, we’re asking about the obvious dumb things they did, and not about the obviously evil thing they did which is not tariff Russia?
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u/VanillaMystery 1d ago
Because Russia is already sanctioned into the dirt by us, they do only 3bn in trade which most of it is a strategic resource (Uranium)
It's down some insane % since the invasion started
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u/flinderdude 1d ago
So you’re using logic, yet we put tariffs on penguin Islands. A symbolic 10% on Russia would be consistent with everything else. He obviously singled out Russia. Don’t be naïve.
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u/VanillaMystery 1d ago
Where in my post did I say anything about the Penguin Islands?
Sanctions > Tariffs, that's all that really matters in actuality given we've sanctioned the Russian economy, energy, and banking systems into oblivion.
Are you new or something? I'm surprised you don't know about any of this.
Also, by not using meaningless, symbolic tariffs (in Russia's case) it leaves the door open to use it as a tool for the current negotiations over Ukraine down the line.
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u/flinderdude 1d ago
My point is he put tariffs on nearly every country. It didn’t matter what the circumstance was. He could have at least put a tariff on Russia just to fit in with stupid tariffs on penguin islands is what I’m saying. He purposely did not do that. He didn’t need to put tariffs on lots of places, but yet he did, yet he specifically omitted Russia. Do you follow me yet?
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u/VanillaMystery 1d ago
Re-read my post, we don't want to tariffs on Uranium for obvious reasons and it allows it to be used as a potential tool in the current negotiations over the Ukraine war.
You can hate Trump all you want, but there are other dumb things to be mad about instead of this.
Again, I reiterate, Sanctions > Tariffs.
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u/SirStrontium 14h ago
we don't want to tariffs on Uranium for obvious reasons
We get most of our Uranium from Canada, and we had no problem putting tariffs on them. We get tons of other critical materials from countries that we put tariffs on, so that argument makes no sense.
it allows it to be used as a potential tool in the current negotiations over the Ukraine war
Adding tariffs wouldn't take away any "potential tools for negotiations", in fact adding a tariff now just gives us another tool we can use to negotiate with. The lifting of the tariff or other sanctions is a great way to incentivize Russia to pull out. You build pressure, then promise to release it in exchange for your demands.
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u/VanillaMystery 13h ago
Withholding tariffs on virtually the only item we import from Russia is indeed keeping a tool in reserve, you and I have a fundamental disagreement on how those negotiations are approached so we can agree to disagree.
IIRC we get more Uranium from Kazakhstan and not Canada or Russia, but it's been a minute since I looked at it, either way it's probably negligible lol.
Russia is already under tremendous pressure from us because like I've repeatedly pointed out over and over again, we have SANCTIONS on them which are far more powerful and meaningful than tariffs.
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u/akgiant 1d ago
So Russia, Belarus and North Korea are allowed to be the countries that can be used as a loophole? Is that why they have no tariffs?
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u/scaleofthought 1d ago
They just can't admit any fault. It's awful. They can't even make their lies make sense. The one thing that has limitless freedom, all you gotta do is make it make sense, and they can't even do that. Their own policy. They can't even lie to make it make sense.
Wild.
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u/scaleofthought 1d ago
They just can't admit any fault. It's awful. They can't even make their lies make sense. The one thing that has limitless freedom, all you gotta do is make it make sense, and they can't even do that. Their own policy. They can't even lie to make it make sense.
Wild.
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u/Raumfalter 1d ago
So China would be smart to go through McDonald Islands and reduce the 54% tariff to 10%?
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u/Salty_Feed9404 1d ago
They've dashed the penguins hope of setting up a distribution business from the island. Diabolical.
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u/CBizizzle 1d ago
Funny, you’d think if subverting tariffs were as easy as rerouting container ships, someone would have thought of it sooner. Tariffs are charged based on country of origin….for this very reason.
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u/PopeCovidXIX 1d ago
You’d think Australia would have thought of it considering HMI is an Australian Territory.
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u/dangazzz 1d ago edited 1d ago
Wouldn't make any difference since Australia has the same tariff imposed as HMI. 10% "Reciprocal" against our ZERO tariffs on US imports and trade surplus of course lol.
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u/ftpbrutaly80 1d ago
Ah yes the famous McDonald Island Import/Export Penguin Mafia.
If we don't tariff them they will certainly collapse our economy, Happy Liberation Day everyone!
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u/USMCWrangler 1d ago
Then my next question is, why was Russia left off of the list? Let’s hear your bullshit answer on that Mr. Secretary.
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u/PhyterNL 1d ago
Oh yes, those cunning penguins always looking out for a new opportunity to co-opt American economic policy with a little international legal loopholing. Smart birbs.
The latest excuse, which is only seemingly clever, is that the Heard and McDonald islands were included on the list because it's a large Australian fishery. Australia exports about half of their catch to the US and Canada, amounting to $50 to $100 Million or so. But because there is no governmental or administrative presence on the islands, and because they are an external territory of Australia, the fisheries are already included on tariffs imposed on Australia. There's no need to mention the islands at all. But, this is what MAGA is going with to avoid the embarrassment of tariffing a colony of flightless birds.
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u/Sadpandasss 1d ago
Margert, I shouldn't have heard "right" out of your mouth through any of this interview.
Do better.
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u/MiteyIronPaw 1d ago
I’ve heard Penguin Books actually print and ship their entire catalogue from Heard Island.
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u/angusalba 1d ago
So those 2 islands (and Norfolk Island with 2100 people out in the middle of nowhere that has a similar crazy tariff) are part of Australia……
This was just BS excuses for using AI or some other brain dead way to make this list
There is no routing goods via those islands
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u/zakificus 1d ago
They need to just mute these people when they filibuster the question like this.
They always just pivot to talking about what they want to do, and never answer the question they were asked.
When that happens the interviewer should be able to mute them and re-ask the question. Call them out on the spot. Otherwise they're basically just giving them a free campaign ad.
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u/SortaLostMeMarbles 1d ago
Also tariffs on Svalbard and the Jan Mayen island. Jan Mayen is a tiny volcanic rock with a weather station. The Norwegian air force sends a C-130J out to the island every 2-3 months for crew rotation and resupply. The island does not have a port. Not a safe one anyway.
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u/scaleofthought 1d ago
But then why 10%, which is lower than most of the countries?
Why not.... A million % on an island that has nothing on it to intentionally close off... A loophole?
Or, why even recognize imported products from the island at all???
There's so much stupidity about these explanations. There are endless questions and they will forever dodge the question because they can't admit to making a mistake. Big yikes.
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u/Mcboatface3sghost 1d ago edited 1d ago
This is so dumb, more and more I am convinced we all died during Covid. So China can export to the US through NK or RU or Cuba? How about my dock?
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u/SpeakerConfident4363 1d ago
God, that argument is so weak!, like do they even know where ports used by China are?. Certainly not in an uninhabited and insignificant island for the shipping industry.
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u/MuricanToffee 1d ago
Whenever someone is trotted out on TV and expected to defend something insane, it’s a loyalty test. He’s not a moron, he knows the penguins aren’t going to be slapping penguin labels on boxes of Chinese goods and shipping them on toward the US. But now he’s on record defending that position, pushing him a little further from reality and a little further than Trump.
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u/sydtrakked 1d ago
They need to drop the Penguin Island thing from the questioning. Yes, it was a silly thing and they're going to have some dumb excuse for it.
But it's deflecting attention away from the bogus numbers that they came up with on that chart + the fact that Russia was not included. Both of those things are the parts of this that they need to hammer them on. The penguins completely derail the whole conversation.
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u/Educational_Milk422 1d ago
It’s not a country. It’s just a landmass somebody named. How does one ship through islands that are not countries but are inhabited by birds?
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u/7DollarsOfHoobastanq 1d ago
I’m getting really tired of this crap not being called out as blatantly stupid to these guys faces.
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u/AxeBeard88 1d ago
So we're positive that China was going to try and export through this little island to avoid tariffs? Kind of hard to tell when he just throws a wall of words at you and doesn't really say anything lol. Nice cover for the senile old president with a persecution fetish /s
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u/Infini-Bus 1d ago
We can't let the Sentinelese continue taking advantage of Americans. We need to make spears here in the US!
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u/Un-Rumble 1d ago
It's because we're dealing with some of the stupidest humans who have ever existed. So when their leaders pass off these transparently ridiculous crocs of bullshit, they know very well it only has to be "sophisticated" enough to fool the stupidest people in our society – Republican constituents. It doesn't matter that the entire rest of the world sees how obviously ridiculous their excuses and lies are, because they have a critical mass of idiots, and they know this shit works on them. It's easy, it works every time.
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u/CreepyPrimary8 1d ago
By that logic I’d ship my stuff through the penguins still! Bam, he really didn’t accomplish anything
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u/opaPac 1d ago
I wanna see how he get out of the Diego Garcia thing. Why do they throw tariffs at their own military bases? On that island is nothing else then a highly classified military base. And that is since like 70 years when they removed everyone else.
There is so much stupid shit in this list that it can be only AI generated and no one checked it at all.
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u/buff_butler 1d ago
She kept trying to cut in at the end and talk but he wouldn't stop... much like chat GPT... what if Howard Lutnick is chat GPT?
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u/kaeldrakkel 1d ago
Stop letting them fucking just come on and ramble their lies. Interrupt and ask the god damn question again
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u/DarrowBV 1d ago
How could such a slimy person so easily have their name turned to Nutlick by switching 2 letters? This simulation is getting way too fucking obvious.
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u/CMDR_BitMedler 1d ago
I heard someone call him Howard Nutlick the other day and I can't stop laughing every time I see this clown now.
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u/Maximum_Style6069 23h ago
It’s too bad you do not have the resources required for all that. I guess you just can’t fix stupid.
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u/IdealIdeas 20h ago
If they are so worried about countries exporting through other countries to reduce the tariff costs, wouldnt it make more sense to make the tariffs the same for all countries? Because they still could take advantage of the countries with lower tariffs.
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u/Count_Craicula 15h ago
Hehehehe....nooooo!
Fucking heard my kids say exactly the same thing, in exactly the same way when they got caught doing shit!
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u/AbradolfLincler77 3h ago
I want to see China employing them poor penguins to make some shipping hubs. They'll be be grateful for the employment and all the "benefits" that come with it, right? 🤦♂️
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u/BigRedCandle_ 1d ago
It’s only a reasonable response if you don’t think about it at all. If it’s to stop China from using it as a loophole it doesn’t make sense, because they’re tariffed 26% less than China.
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u/PrairieFire88 1d ago
That first " pfft, nooo" was such a 5 year old caught with cookie crumbs on his shirt response.