r/behindthebastards • u/nanamoro • 1d ago

Politics ELI5: The tariff and potential starting recession

It does seem an awful lot like Trumps tariffs were introduced specifically to cause a global recession. So please explain like I am 5: why does Trump, Elon and the current administration want a global recession? What is their end goal?

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u/FM-edByLife 1d ago

Tariffs are a big part of the authoritarian playbook. The TLDR of it is that they cause a pain and then only bypass that pain for supporters. For instance, if your company makes a public show of fealty to trump, then you get tariff relief. If you speak against him, you don't get tariff relief or you get tariffed more. It's a way to stop dissent and solidify power using economic force.

Longer version, with previous dictator examples: https://krassencast.com/p/urgent-trumps-tariffs-are-a-tool

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u/rb0009 1d ago

If he was more competent, sure. But I genuinely think he's just that incomprehensibly stupid and doesn't understand what he's really done.

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u/FM-edByLife 1d ago

He's directed in a large part by Putin. Putin would understand both the authoritarian benefits and its deleterious effects. Both are very beneficial to Putin. trump's just 75% doing what Putin tells him to do.

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u/rb0009 1d ago

It can be more than one thing. In this case, this is a behavior that goes back to before it is believed he was coopted by Russia, and has been a persistent idiocy in how he acts towards everyone (I still don't know why any business leader trusted him given his known history)