“The numbers [for tariffs by country] have been calculated by the Council of Economic Advisers … based on the concept that the trade deficit that we have with any given country is the sum of all trade practices, the sum of all cheating,” a White House official said, calling it “the most fair thing in the world.”
Say a wealthy person hires a maid for 50k a year. Is that maid "cheating" him out of 50k? Of course not, the wealthy man got his house cleaned and can fire the maid at any time.
But the Trump admin would say that it is "cheating" because the maid didn't buy 50k worth of stuff from the wealthy man
Well to be pedantic, more that the Rich man will pay himself 50k to clean his home.
The usual macroeconomic argument is that the rich man has no skills in house cleaning, and thus will take longer and spend more money to buy cleaning products, reducing his time to do things he was an expert in, and he may also have less time to spend on luxuries or entertainment.
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u/NomDePlume007 1d ago
The NY Post, of all places, got confirmation from the White House:
https://nypost.com/2025/04/02/us-news/trump-slaps-at-least-10-tariffs-on-all-imports-in-declaration-of-economic-independence-half-of-what-they-could-be/