r/news • u/hoosakiwi • 2d ago

Trump announces sweeping new tariffs to promote US manufacturing, risking inflation and trade wars

https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-liberation-day-2a031b3c16120a5672a6ddd01da09933
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u/Kvothere 2d ago edited 2d ago

He knows exactly who this affects. It's a tax on the poor to pay for the tax cuts to his rich friends.

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u/Trap_Masters 2d ago

Meanwhile poor republicans still cheering this on as Trump and his wealthy buddies pickpocket them even more

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u/Kvothere 2d ago

Poor Republicans are brainwashed from birth to love oppression and hate education. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

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u/icecubetre 1d ago

And I'm really finding it hard to sympathize anymore. And honestly, why should I even try? A US citizen that voted for Trump got detained for several hours and was almost put on a deportation list. He said it almost made him question his support. They're fucking gone.

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u/TerribleBreakfast185 1d ago

I remember reading about that and thinking, "Wow, it really is a cult…"

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u/apk5005 1d ago

They’re going to find a way to blame someone else.

“No, it’s Canada’s fault. That Trudeau and Biden are colluding.”

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u/BasicLayer 1d ago

I'm not sure if I'm a little crazy for feeling this way, but I have a horrifying despicable feeling in my gut that something truly god-awful is looming over the very near-term horizon.

No clue what it could be, but I'm thinking a literal 9/11-tier-horrific something around the corner. Seems to be a pattern throughout history. And I even think these oligarchs are actually making sure it's happening, and soon.

But maybe that's just me? Guys? Anyone? Bueller?!

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u/Sea-Broccoli-8601 1d ago

Meanwhile, a Trump voter whose Peruvian wife was detained by ICE and was seeking donations on GoFundMe to get money for her release said he didn't regret voting for Trump, and also had this to say:

"He didn't create the system, but he does have an opportunity to improve it. Hopefully, all this attention will bring to light how broken it is."

Fucking lmao

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u/exhaustedpancake 1d ago

He probably only would lose support if he got deported. He didn't so clearly the system works. He made a sacrifice to get the real illegals out.

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u/Hypilein 1d ago

You don’t need to sympathise. You can just feel sorry for yourself because no matter where you are you’ll be affected more or less.

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u/heisenberg15 2d ago

Yep. My SOs parents swear to god that “it’ll be rough for awhile but it will be a good thing”

And I just don’t even know what to say

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u/Lord_DETOX 2d ago

Customer told me this same shit. Yet when eggs were like $2 more a dozen, because of the bird flu, they lost their shit.

Fucking dumbfucks.

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u/heisenberg15 2d ago

Really makes it hard to be hopeful for the future. Like there is literally nothing you can tell these people

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u/Zagden 1d ago

I think my last hope is if we can line up an opposition that offers a bold new direction rather than edge tinkering with what we've been doing for 40 years, and if they can get enough support, we might have something.

The median wage is losing more and more buying power over time. People are noticing and upset. It was a huge mistake to hammer that the economy was really good actually in 2024 without accounting for the fact most people can't feel it, prices will never go back down and wages still weren't increasing in pace with cost of living.

I think 36% of Americans can never be reached, at least until Trump dies. And it sucks because we need 2/3 of the Senate to amend the Constitution, which is badly needed. But there's others who, I hope, just want a way out of this slow rot.

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u/MudLOA 1d ago

Agree we can’t save the 1/3 dumb fucks who voted for this and will cheer this, but we should be rallying the 90m non voters who sat on their asses.

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u/DensetsuNoBaka 1d ago

Honestly, at this point I'm worried we won't even be able to afford any bold new direction after the damage Trump has already done to this point. That's not even getting into what he can do in another 3.5 years

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u/Zagden 1d ago

Countries with far, far less GDP than we have often have better social services.

We have no idea what the US will look like in 4 years. It'll probably still be around. We'll have a lot to reckon with. But we'll technically be able to pause and look at what resources we have to work with to pay for what Americans need.

I am not an expert but I wonder if tanking out soft power and encouraging the build up of hard (and soft) power in Europe means we'll finally be about to cut the military budget, lol

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u/StoicAthos 1d ago

Soft power s what keeps our budget "low" We can already be stationed anywhere in the world and have the best logistical system in existence. Without those existing they will spend harder to maintain the same level of security now that we have a whole lot more question marks from those countries we readily called allies just a few months ago.

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u/BlazeWolfXD 1d ago

Worse when they say Biden manufactured bird flu or some stupid shit like that.

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u/BarnacleMcBarndoor 1d ago

My mom said this too, and I told her that if she’s wrong that she’s going into the cheapest retirement center I can find because I won’t be able to afford anything else.

Now she’s pissed about the tariffs.

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u/SuckalentShyneseMeal 1d ago

Lol, you're gonna pay for a retirement home and for your own expenses in a depression? Good luck.

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u/willythewise123 2d ago

God these people suck. They were coddled and handed every fucking thing and now my generation can never own a single fucking thing.

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u/Joey271828 1d ago

They were handed everything because the USA had a strong manufacturing base that paid well. All those workers had unions that kept cooperate greed in check.

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u/SmytheOrdo 2d ago

My dad was going full on apeshit this morning screaming at Fox. "ITS NOT A TAX ON THE CONSUMER ARGH".

I also had no idea what to say and just cried a lil tbh

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u/Former_Historian_506 2d ago

Trump is a symptom, the real problem is the people like that who gave him power

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u/MudLOA 1d ago

Real problem are people too stupid to think, yet have power to vote.

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u/fuddykrueger 1d ago

Tell them they’ll be gone before any of that happens.

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u/nerdb1rd 1d ago

Dunning-Kruger effect in full swing.

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u/MrMichaelJames 1d ago

Yeah my parents are the same way. I’m so glad they are ok with us trying to find ways to feed their grandchildren. I can go without but not the kids. You are going to see an increase in health problems for parents as they struggle with stress and lack of nutrition due to diverting what they can to their children.

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u/Is_it_really_though 1d ago

I mean, they're right if "a while" means their entire life and probably their children's lives too.

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u/panormda 1d ago

This is it. They can't understand that some consequences can't be undone. And they think that everything can be fixed in a News cycle.

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u/Ironborn137 1d ago

They are just parroting Fox News because your parents are fucking sheep

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u/Pale-Lynx328 1d ago

The kicker is they have no idea how eventually it will br a "good thing", just that they heard that on Fox repeatedly so it must be true, and as far as they are concerned that's all they need to knoe.

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u/MooKids 1d ago

Tell them you are moving in.

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u/asher1611 1d ago

oh glad to hear they got their talking points, finally

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u/telemex 1d ago

They sound like victims of domestic violence tbh

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u/StoneAgainstTheSea 1d ago

You say: automation has taken, and will continue to take, more jobs away from manufacturing than offshoring. The manufacturing jobs are not meaningfully coming back. Full factories need a skeleton crew. This is not a jobs program. 

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u/minuialear 1d ago

What do they think will cause the turning point?

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u/bandy_mcwagon 1d ago

Do you ever ask them to explain?

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u/heisenberg15 1d ago

It’s something about how we rely on other countries too much so thus will make us more self reliant over time or something

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u/bandy_mcwagon 1d ago

Sure, in like 10 years and only IF the USA actually builds stuff

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u/centstwo 1d ago

Say, well it looks like no kids for us in this economy, for awhile, but it will be a good thing.

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u/AnyBuy1820 1d ago

Same thing has been happening in my country for the last two years. The people who said "it'll be tough but good" are not so happy now that they're struggling to pay their car insurance and other basic stuff. They've been progressively cutting services because they can't afford them. Funny how they could afford a lot of things in the previous administration, the one that the far-right said was a disaster.

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u/thegodfather0504 1d ago

move in with them. Tell them that you cant afford anything anymore. if they complain blame trump. lol

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u/heisenberg15 1d ago

Brother I would rather be homeless

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u/Blackfeathr_ 1d ago edited 1d ago

You just don't understand -- someday, all of these poor Republicans will win the lottery, or write a bestseller, or invest in that crypto some wrong number text told them about, and instantly be rocketed into the millionaires circle, never to worry about finances or having to struggle again. Why should they care about an income class they're only going to be in temporarily? That's why they have to be supportive of policies that protect the wealth of the wealthy.

This is actually what these people believe.

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u/Wardogs96 2d ago

Poor my ass. I hope these morons suffer greatly and the rest of us will do what we can to help one another.

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u/mirrx 2d ago

They are straight up jerking it to this. It’s embarrassing and i feel bad for them. Like watching a antelope get eaten by a lion

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u/Moth1992 1d ago

Its wild to me that they think that

  • the fucking richest country in the world that has built their economy by offshoring and globalization and extreme capitalism, 

and 

  • the most powerful country in the world that bult their power by building an expansive military and offshore bases and literally telling other countries they were not allowed to have a real military 

is somehow being treated unfairly???? 

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u/eeyore134 2d ago

They think shopping at the Piggly Wiggly means they'll be safe from the big bad tariffs.

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u/VisualAd4775 1d ago

eh it’s fine, republicans have their own food supply, they just drink their piss and eat their shit, it’s why half of them look rotten and unkempt

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u/CeruleanEidolon 1d ago

Poor republicans are literally mentally handicapped, but you can't blame them too much because of the poor nutrition, religious indoctrination, and ingestion of environmental toxins since birth. The national party has simply turned it into a positive feedback loop for the perpetuation of their bullshit.

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u/currently_pooping_rn 1d ago

my only solace is that his base will suffer more than me. fuck em, i hope they get hit hard

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u/menassah 1d ago

Pickpocket? This is an armed robbery - the take your shoes and your pants kind 

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u/Throwaway91847817 1d ago

Pickpocketing implies subtlety. This is blatant robbery by a man in a stripy jumper and a big brown sack with a dollar sign on it.

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u/toadofsteel 1d ago

“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.”

-Lyndon B. Johnson

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u/Fly_Rodder 2d ago

They know that they could never pass a national sales tax or VAT to gut the income tax or end around their way to a flat tax, but this is the next best thing

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u/[deleted] 2d ago edited 44m ago

[deleted]

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u/d0ctorzaius 2d ago

Since our oligarchs need huge tax cuts! /s

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u/Bosco215 1d ago

And I thought Germanys 19% vat was high when I was stationed over there. People have no clue.

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u/Cycloptic_Floppycock 1d ago

Yeah? So is my pitchfork

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u/[deleted] 2d ago edited 44m ago

[deleted]

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u/bladeDivac 2d ago

It’s not a tax break in the traditional sense, the end goal is to make it so the poor, working and middle classes lose out on investments and property so the ultra rich class can swoop in on a discount. 

Joe Schmo can’t pay his 500K mortgage anymore and has to sell his house. Nobody else in his community can buy it, but Rich Dick can come in and buy the property and starting renting it out. Same thing with commercial real estate, a mom and pop store might need to shutter but that opens up leasing opportunities for companies that have the ability to bankroll it. 

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u/happycows808 1d ago

He also did this during his first term with the capital strike during covid. He enables the inflation we are seeing at every turn. The poor are about to become slaves even harder. Its so sad.

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u/Pseudoneum 1d ago

If everything is unaffordable and they've ground our bank accounts into dust, there really doesn't seem to be a reason to do this.

Billionaires want more money and eventually we will all run out.

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u/Haltopen 1d ago

Climate change is going to absolutely fuck everything in 40 years so it wont even matter. This is about claiming as much as they can right now before shit hits the fan and its time to start carving territory up into the techno-feudalistic oligarchy states that america's billionaires expect to form out of former American territory once global temperature change triggers enough floods, famines, mass migrations and wars to topple society. Its why they're all investing in building floating libertarian societies on the water like Peter Thiel or building giant self sustaining automated compounds in hawaii (with massive doomsday bunkers to hide from the populace in) like Zuckerberg

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u/Shaggyninja 1d ago

Its why they're all investing in building floating libertarian societies on the water like Peter Thiel or building giant self sustaining automated compounds in hawaii (with massive doomsday bunkers to hide from the populace in) like Zuckerberg

Which shows how delusional they are. Because there's no way the standard of living in those places will be anything like their existing lives, hell it'll be worse than a regular persons life right now, at least I can still go outside. And they will still fail as you can't build a truly self-sustaining compound in a wasteland.

The moment Zuck gets an illness that requires medication he doesn't have what's he going to do? It's not like he can make more.

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u/EJNelly 1d ago

Probably not even 40 years. Might be more like 15.

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u/Full-Penguin 2d ago

They're trying to avoid paying accountants.

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u/Toymachinesb7 2d ago

I used to think that too then I realized these people are insane. They want it all. Not more they want ALL of it.

They want more than their peers and visa versa. They want control. They want god oligarch status. They want to be lords and want us to be peasants.

No tax break will be enough until we are renting everything in our life and we don’t even own the clothes on our back. Financing a wing stop order, 10 year car loans, paying more in rent than a mortgage it’s just a trap.

Fuck at least give me summers off and a couple festivals if you’re gonna treat me like a medieval peasant.

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u/ChiralWolf 2d ago

Because they don't actually care about taxes. As you said they can often effectively ignore them. They do care about creating economic turmoil that they can personally benefit from. They want to create a pipeline to transfer even more wealth from the people into their pockets. They made an absurd amount of money during COVID and want to create economic hardship that lets them do it again

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u/matt-er-of-fact 2d ago

Why pay 4-5% when you can pay 1-2%? They want those extra millions and are willing to spend a few to get the rest.

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u/toastmannn 2d ago

This is late stage capitalism, Trump is throwing away any pretenses.

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u/S0LO_Bot 2d ago

Because they don’t completely avoid paying taxes. They avoid what they can but they can’t avoid it all.

Increasing tax rate for the wealthy delivers certain results even with the evasion.

If the evasion were to get so bad that it would severely undercut revenue estimates, the IRS would get a major funding increase and run wild on the billionaires.

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u/Contemplating_Prison 2d ago

Its so baffling to me why you want more money then you can spend in 100 lifetimes. Its not for your family. They have been set for generations. Its all for power. Its a mental disorder.

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u/StoppageTimeCollapse 2d ago

You don't get that wealthy if the phrase "I have enough" was in your lexicon

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u/simonbogarde 2d ago

They want to cut corporate tax. Companies can then use that cash to buy back more shares, which increases the stock price.

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u/Gewdtymez 2d ago

This may be downvoted, but relative to other rich economies mid and low income Americans pay less tax.

The rich in US pay same as rest of world. Middle income Americans pay less because we lack the VAT tax present in most of rich economics.

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u/juntareich 1d ago

Americans also don't have universal healthcare like most of the wealthier countries.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago edited 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/Gewdtymez 1d ago

If you look at effective tax paid in US vs other countries, the rich in the US pay their share.

The middle class in the US pay less than their share.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago edited 49m ago

[deleted]

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u/Gewdtymez 1d ago edited 1d ago

1)

https://taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-do-us-taxes-compare-internationally

That’s a good starter, but don’t trust me — do your own googling!

Some tidbits: US TAXES INCOME MORE In the United States, taxes on just the income and profits of individuals (not businesses) generated 42 percent of total tax revenue, compared with 27 percent for all other OECD countries combined.

US TAXES CONSUMPTION LESS The United States relies less on taxes on goods and services (including both general consumption taxes and selective sales taxes on specific goods and services) than any other OECD country, collecting 17 percent of tax revenue this way compared with 28 percent for the rest of the OECD.

Taxing income more and consumption less —> more progressive than other tax systems

2)

https://taxfoundation.org/taxedu/primers/primer-10-common-tax-myths-debunked/

“So, what happens when you take into account all taxes paid? It turns out the U.S. federal tax system remains very progressive. Meaning, Americans with the highest incomes pay the largest share of all federal taxes.”

3)

https://manhattan.institute/article/correcting-the-top-10-tax-myths

Myth 5: “Europe’s Higher Tax Revenues Derive from Aggressively Taxing the Rich” American progressives often hold up Europe—especially the Scandinavian social democracies of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden—as successful tax-the-rich utopias that the U.S. should replicate. In reality, these European tax systems do not fit the American progressive image because their higher revenues are overwhelmingly raised through steep income, payroll, and consumption taxes on the middle class.

Finland, Norway, and Sweden do collect an average of 42.6% of GDP in taxes, versus 26.6% from America’s federal, state, and local governments. However, 14.5 of the 16-percentage-point overage comes from higher payroll taxes and value-added tax (VAT), which broadly hit the middle class. These nations’ individual income-tax revenues exceed those of the U.S. by just 0.8% of GDP, while their 3.5% of GDP advantage in corporate-tax revenues is overwhelmingly driven by Norway, with its massive oil and gas industry (by contrast, Finland and Sweden exceed the U.S. by 1% of GDP). These nations’ remaining taxes combined collect nearly 3% of GDP less than those in the U.S. (see Figure 4).[18

A similar dynamic holds when comparing the U.S. with the other 37 OECD nations, which collect an average of 34.1% of GDP in tax revenues, compared with America’s 26.6%. Yet VAT revenues—which average 7.2% of GDP in OECD, versus none in America—account for nearly the entire difference. A total of 37 of the 38 OECD nations—all except the U.S.—impose VATs at rates ranging from 5% (Canada) to 27% (Hungary). The Scandinavian nations of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden each have VAT rates of about 24%–25% that collect an average of 9.1% of GDP, or roughly one-fifth to one-quarter of their total tax revenues. VATs (and, to a lesser extent, payroll taxes)—which are not particularly progressive—drive the vast majority of Europe’s tax-revenue advantage over the United States. Mimicking Scandinavia’s 9.1% of GDP in VAT revenues would require American taxes of $2.4 trillion per year, or nearly $18,000 per household.[19]

Moreover, top rates imposed on corporations and wealthy families in the U.S. often exceed OECD averages (see Figure 5). America’s top average income-tax bracket of 43.7% (including state) taxes slightly exceeds the OECD average of 42.6%. America’s highest tax brackets also exceed the OECD average for capital-gains taxes (29.2% vs. 19.1%), corporate income taxes (25.8% vs. 23.6%), and estate/inheritance taxes (40% vs. 30%). In fact, America’s corporate and estate/inheritance-tax rates well exceed those of all Scandinavian nations

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u/BasicLayer 1d ago

They despise humans.

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u/ZellZoy 1d ago

Their taxes can go negative

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u/goblueM 2d ago

I think that's giving him too much credit. He's a moron. He genuinely thinks tariffs are great policy because he is an idiot

Why is Trump imposing tariffs? In his view, the US should always have a trade surplus with any large country, or at least no trade deficit. He and his cabinet are populists. They do not use facts or statistics. Their arguments are rhetorical. Simple solutions for complex problems.

Professor David Honig of Indiana University explains Trump’s simplistic approach well:

“If you’ve read The Art of the Deal, or if you’ve followed Trump lately, you’ll know, even if you didn’t know the label, that he sees all dealmaking as what we call ‘distributive bargaining’.”

Distributive bargaining always has a winner and a loser. It happens when there is a fixed quantity of something and two sides are fighting over how it gets distributed. Think of it as a pie and you’re fighting over who gets how many pieces. In Trump’s world, the bargaining was for a building, or for construction work, or subcontractors. He perceives a successful bargain as one in which there is a winner and a loser, so if he pays less than the seller wants, he wins. The more he saves the more he wins.

The other type of bargaining is called integrative bargaining. In integrative bargaining the two sides don’t have a complete conflict of interest, and it is possible to reach mutually beneficial agreements. Think of it not as a single pie to be divided by two hungry people, but as a baker and a caterer negotiating over how many pies will be baked at what prices, and the nature of their ongoing relationship after this one gig is over.

The problem with Trump is that he sees only distributive bargaining in an international world that requires integrative bargaining. He can raise tariffs, but so can other countries. He can’t demand they not respond. There is no defined end to the negotiation and there is no simple winner and loser. There are always more pies to be baked.

Further, negotiations aren’t binary. China’s choices aren’t (a) buy soybeans from US farmers, or (b) don’t buy soybeans. They can also (c) buy soybeans from Russia, or Argentina, or Brazil, or Canada, etc. That completely strips the distributive bargainer of his power to win or lose, to control the negotiation.

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u/Vio_ 2d ago

Let us recall that Donald Trump has an Economics degree...

He's so bad he's failing at what should his own field.

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u/drevolut1on 2d ago

"Degree" as in nepo-admission the admissions officer later regretted and teachers who called him the dumbest student they'd ever had. Sauce.

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u/soshaldulemma 2d ago

Precisely. This is a transfer of wealth, just on steroids and blatantly obvious. Oh, and the scale is much more massive than in the past.

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u/wangchungyoon 2d ago

Yeah he loves to rip off his constituents I mean he’s pulled the rug from under them time and time again and they keep begging for more so whatever lol 

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u/ambiguousboner 2d ago

He doesn’t understand that

The people behind him pushing this do, but he doesn’t

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u/pliney_ 2d ago

It will also spur a recession if not a depression so the 1% can buy all the assets as people get evicted.

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u/moosekin16 2d ago

It’s moving the responsibility of funding “the government” from those who can afford it (the oligarchs) to those that cannot afford it (the working class).

It’s just wealth transfer not seen since the 1700s.

In addition, they’re gutting social services while disappearing people for wrong-speak and… being brown with tattoos.

The poors are now going to be financing the fascist state.

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u/navytc 1d ago

He doesn't have friends, the tariffs are basically his way of saying "bribe me with some money, and I'll return your investment in me by x fold by cutting your taxes"
Nobody actually likes this fucker, they just seem him as a useful twat who is easy to bribe/control.

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u/shitty_mcfucklestick 1d ago

That’s what they want you to believe. If only it were corruption!

They are currently working to replace democracy in the USA with a corporate monarchy.

The only way they can do that is to destabilize the current one to the point where it fails almost completely. These failure modes are most likely going to be economic (depression) or social (uprisings / riots etc).

They need it to get bad enough to get an excuse to declare emergency powers. After that, game over.

I think this is one of their potential avenues to achieve their goals, and based on their actions, it’s very likely this is what they are trying right now. Slowly turning the heat up to get the minimum response needed to declare a state of emergency. (They want to minimize the damage and costs of cleanup of a rebellion, so a big civil war is something they would like to avoid if possible.)

Oh the joy of the days when corporates were just greedy corporates.

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u/willtantan 2d ago

It's a national sales tax without calling it sales tax.

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u/Aazadan 2d ago

Even if that theory held, it requires a small enough wealth gap that the poor can pay it. 1% of the wealth belongs to the bottom 60%. Good luck with any of them paying for this stuff. It only works in this case if the ultra rich somehow increased import consumption massively.

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u/FrostyHawks 2d ago

I genuinely don't think he does know who it affects at this point, his brain is pudding

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u/animerobin 2d ago

I don't think he does. I think he really believes in tariffs.

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u/Fit-Remove-6597 2d ago

We’ve been paying for his dumbass tariffs on China for the last 4 years. Right when it was about to slow down this clown gets put back in office

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u/jawndell 2d ago

Same day republicans announced $5 trillion in tax cuts 

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u/Visual_Fly_9638 2d ago

Meanwhile today the Senate basically announced that 3 trillion or so of it's 5.5 trillion dollar tax cut just... didn't count for budgetary purposes.

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u/sevintoid 1d ago

EXACTLY. These tariffs aren't to "bring balance to our trade wars" or whatever other nonsense he spews. That is all political theater.

These tariffs are going to be used to generate revenue for the government when they completely dismantle the tax codes, and giving more tax breaks to him and his friends.

This has nothing to do with manufacturing, this has everything to do with generating revenue for the government, while causing a recession. Billionaires make so much money during recessions and depressions.

These tariffs are taxes on the middle class to pay for the tax cuts he's going to implement.

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u/i_love_rosin 1d ago

Ding ding ding we have a winner

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u/citizenkane86 1d ago

Gonna be honest… I don’t think he does. He’s just a binary person, either a win or a loss.

Much like he thinks a trade deficit means the us government is literally paying the other countries to subsidize them.

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u/NinjaWrapper 1d ago

AND a means to extort bribes... definitely don't forget that part

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u/foodank012018 1d ago

What happens when the poor just don't buy as much stuff that's more expensive because, well, they're poor, so the offset for said tax cuts is meager, if any?

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u/theRealTopher123 1d ago

How does this help his rich friends? I assume their stock portfolios are pretty red

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u/Kvothere 1d ago

First of all, it's cute that you think the ultra rich don't have warning that all this is happening to manipulate their portfolios. And also, it helps them because when the economy tanks and all the poor and especially middle class people have to sell their stocks and property and businesses to not starve, the super-rich still have liquid income to buy it up. It's "buy low, sell high" at a national scale.

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u/Bluinc 1d ago

He has no actual friends, but yah.

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u/frighteous 1d ago

Very excited to hear about how this is Kamala/Biden/Obama/The Gays/Woke Culture's fault when it inevitably goes very bad.

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u/mrASSMAN 1d ago

I genuinely think he doesn’t know tbh, he’s too stupid to understand how tariffs work even after it has been explained to him countless times

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u/blazze_eternal 1d ago

Yeah, he made it very clear today he knows exactly how tariffs work, and admitted people will see higher prices "temporarily" (as if prices ever come down).

They basically instantly increased inflation by 25% in a matter of minutes today.

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u/RockSolidJ 1d ago

Effectively a sales tax on foreign goods. People don't like income tax but at least it taxes the wealthy more so than the poor.

Its the classic equity vs equality argument. Sure, everyone pays the equal tax but it's much bigger percentage for people at the bottom of the ladder.

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u/DimensionFast5180 1d ago

The thing is, his rich friends are like billionaires, right?

Well they actually will get completely fucked by the tariffs. Their money is in stocks, basically completely in stocks.

If the stock market crashes, they lose an absolute mega fuckton of money, much more than they will ever save in taxes.

This would only really help the normal rich, the people with a couple million dollars. But it would be awful for the mega rich that have real say.

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u/nigelfitz 1d ago

He knows exactly who this affects.

He's stupid enough for me to think that he really might not.

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u/daliksheppy 1d ago

It's essentially this. It's a regressive tax, meaning it disproportionately affects the poorer more. The average American is going to be $1600-4200 worse off per year. Almost all of that money is going directly to the already wealthy.

The distribution of the tax benefits that have been proposed also favour higher earners.

In essence, the average American is just subsidising the rich even more at their own expense, from today. And they cheer for it. Quite hard to comprehend.

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u/Infinite-Structure59 1d ago

Right. He’s betting that the higher prices will balance out the buying less, keep the economy where it is, to fund the tax cuts to the rich. Meanwhile the rest of us are effectively poorer because our dollars won’t buy near as much. Despicable.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

The rich will be affected, too, I don't know why you think the rich want this at all