Donald Trump just imposed a 25 percent tariff on virtually all goods produced by America’s two largest trading partners — Canada and Mexico. He simultaneously established a 20 percent across-the-board tariff on Chinese goods.
As a result, America’s average tariff level is now higher than at any time since the 1940s.
Meanwhile, China and Canada immediately retaliated against Trump’s duties, with the former imposing a 15 percent tariff on American agricultural products and the latter putting a 25 percent tariff on $30 billion of US goods. Mexico has vowed to mount retaliatory tariffs of its own.
This trade war could have far-reaching consequences. Trump’s tariffs have already triggered a stock market sell-off and cooling of manufacturing activity. And economists have estimated that the trade policy will cost the typical US household more than $1,200 a year, as the prices of myriad goods rise.
All this raises the question: Why has the US president chosen to upend trade relations on the North American continent? The stakes of this question are high, since it could determine how long Trump’s massive tariffs remain in effect. Unfortunately, the president himself does not seem to know the answer.
In recent weeks, Trump has provided five different — and contradictory — justifications for his tariffs on Mexico and Canada…
…more in the article.
Cuz he is a puppet, a Russian asset and generally not an intelligent person nor a good businessman.
He’s a very smart person /s
Market manipulation. If you can tank the stock market at a time YOU know well in advance, then you stand to profit “tremendously”.
He or people in his stead might have purchased put options ahead of the anouncement of tariffs. -> profits When he then says “it was just a prank brooo!” he can make money by buying the now devalued assets and sell them as soon as they recover. rinse repeat.
I smell market manipulation maybe I am mistaken this smell and it is really the smell of mental instability…
This only works so well. Especially when he’s proven that he flip flops as often as he does, no one will reinvest, because who knows when the next time he does something stupid to tank the market again. The smarter ones will actually catch onto the grift, and see it for what it is, and just pull out altogether so when the recession/depression hits full on, they at least have something instead of nothing.
He can’t exactly say “destabilization”.
Oh wait, he totally would. In this politicsl climate it doesn’t matter anyway.
Of course he knows. The goal is to crash the economy so the people who still have money when everyone lost theirs, i.e. the oligarchs, can buy up all these assets/companies that went bankrupt. And in the future when the markets recover, they have even more power. Losing a couple billion now is nothing in comparison to the long term gain
Because republicans want to fund the country entirely from tariffs instead of taxes.
Which worked out great for every country that has ever tried it.
Tariffs are taxes.
He is a Russian asset and has been since at least 2014
He has to be. I can’t think of any other reason why he’d be trying to hard to antagonize and disrespect long-time allies, while praising Russia. He then made that ridiculous statement that Ukraine started the war, when Russia was the one who invaded them, and also said that Zelensky should be ‘nicer’ to Putin. But Putin, who ordered the attack that caused who knows how many deaths, shouldn’t be ‘nicer’?
There was also the first term, where Trump fired the FBI director over an investigation into Russia, and then told Russia that he fired ‘that nut job’. What kind of message does that send to their own people? Not just that he fired the director, but that he bragged about it to the people he was investigating.
I honestly think most of the GOP knows, but they’re too embarrassed to admit it. Or maybe it’s just pride, they think it’s beneath them to be held accountable to anyone.
…or they’re on the take as well.
Yeah. Dude knows exactly why he’s weakening America as much and on every front as possible, it’s just he can’t exactly say the truth and isn’t smart enough to effectively lie about it.
He keeps claiming they are “abusing us”, but… Like, why did he make that deal then last time he was in office?
Uhm something something illegal rapist immigrants high on fentanyl. I’ve got tee-time in 10.
Because at his age it was easier than getting penis-enlarging surgery.
Of course he doesn’t. He should be in elder care not in the White House.
Synonym for the past 4 years tbh. But hey, I (as a non-American) would be okay with old but not insane president. Guess we got both this time around.
That was how I made peace with Biden in the first place.
“You aren’t voting for the man, you’re voting for the cabinet and judges he appoints”.
Atleast Biden’s cabinet was more-or-less competent. I didn’t always agree with them, but atleast there was a logic outside of “this will only benefit the obscenely rich/Russia”
Exactly this, Biden wasn’t better health wise but surrounded himself with competent people.
Right now we have a fox news host leading defense, an anti-Vax moron handling a measles outbreak, a wrestling tycoon killing our education system, and more.
I never liked that many seem to be of the idea that Trump is an absolute buffoon who doesn’t know what he is doing. He and his goons are not headless chickens. They are not stupid, and know incredibly well what they are doing and why.
You don’t get to win an election twice if you’re as much of an idiot as most make him out to be. If we keep underestimating our ‘opposition’, we will continue to be defeated.
See this article for more: https://unherd.com/2025/02/why-trumps-tariffs-are-a-masterplan/
TLDR:
In this article, Yanis Varoufakis analyzes Donald Trump’s economic strategy, arguing that it is more sophisticated than his critics assume. Trump’s focus on tariffs is part of a broader plan to reshape the global economic order, which Varoufakis describes as an “anti-Nixon Shock.” Trump believes the U.S. has been exploited due to the dollar’s role as the global reserve currency, which he sees as a burden rather than a privilege. He aims to weaken the dollar to boost U.S. manufacturing and reduce trade deficits, while maintaining its reserve status to fund U.S. deficits and military power.
Trump’s plan involves using tariffs to pressure foreign central banks to lower interest rates, thereby depreciating their currencies relative to the dollar. This would offset the price increases caused by tariffs on U.S. consumers. The second phase of his strategy involves bilateral negotiations with key countries, leveraging tariffs and security threats to force them to appreciate their currencies and make concessions, such as buying more U.S. goods or relocating manufacturing to the U.S.
Varoufakis acknowledges the risks, including potential domestic backlash from Wall Street and the possibility of foreign countries, particularly China, creating an alternative financial system. However, he argues that Trump’s plan is coherent and should not be underestimated, even if it diverges sharply from traditional economic thinking.
That’s definitely someone’s opinion of what they are doing. I think he’s fallen victim to looking really hard for a plausible reason for emotional behavior. Trump and his admin seem more hell bent on gaining leverage in order to increase greatness and power over others and eventually profit. They aren’t looking to save or kill the dollar or reset the economy. In my opinion as an uneducated person they want to deregulate then tank the markets to create an environment where the wealthiest will buy up the discounted assets and profit when the economy swings back. Nothing more than a shortsighted opportunity to consolidate power and wealth, the same way he is trying to consolidate power into the executive branch.
I don’t doubt the reputation of the writer or his general knowledge of economics…
But this is coping. The Trump administration is trying to wave their hands around and create a giant fuss for people like us and this writer to speculate on and create debates and panels to think about… while he and his people simply walk out of the white house with the treasury and all the inside investment opportunities they will ever want.
He’s just making chaos, plain and simple. These ideas about his master plan to disrupt the world’s reliance on the US dollar? Distraction and coping.
I agree this administration is more clever than we give them credit for, but any house thief can step up their game and pull of a heist when they set their mind to it, it’s not some kind of magic skill. If anything, I think it’s harmful to assume Trump is at all smart or has a plan because this makes a lot more assumptions than the most simple answer which is almost always the correct determination. He is making a mess because his ONLY plan is to make you think he has a plan. He does this with literally everything he says or announces, why would anyone think this is different? This is EXACTLY the fucking delusion I was railing against in another comment. There is no plan. Nobody is coming. Stop thinking others are smarter than you or have a backup plan.
My evidence? We’ve done all this fucking before, this is part 2 of a failure of a presidency. He didn’t change the world before, he won’t here. (Other than diminishing the US role in geopolitics so Russia can take center stage, all he really wants right now)
Dude that makes no sense at all. He wants to depreciate the dollar by putting on tariffs, an action you yourself admit depreciates all OTHER currencies, thereby increasing the value of the dollar?
Then after that he’ll “negotiate” to have the other countries to appreciate their currencies? By buying US goods and companies?? Both of those things appreciate the US dollar. China has been selling their goods to the US (something which should appreciate their currency) without appreciating their currency by buying property and companies in the US so they never have to use the US dollar to buy their own currency. This increases the value of the dollar while decreasing demands for the Chinese currency. This has been widely seen as unfair currency manipulation by China.
Things that increase demand for US dollars such as buying US goods and investing in the US APPRECIATE the value of of the US dollar. I haven’t read the article yet, but I hope your summary is incorrect, because Varoufakis is generally a very intelligent left wing thinker and I would be surprised to see this kind of gaffe in basic economics.
Edit: here is a link to the article since the one above didn’t work for me.
https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2025/02/21/donald-trumps-economic-masterplan-unherd/
While tariffs would work against Trump’s plan (by deppreciating foreign currencies) they give Trump revenue he can spend with congressional approval. Then for the countries that make a deal he’ll either force them to appreciate their currencies by swapping US dollars for their own currency (to depreciate the dollar), OR make them buy very long term US bonds (stabilizing the US debt markets) and buying US weapons (diluting the cost of US military R&D). Trump hopes this lets him depreciate the dollar while keeping it as a reserve currency (having his cake and eating it too).
The thing is, I don’t doubt there is an actual reason why these plans have some more intelligent purpose behind them; I doubt that Trump is the one thinking of this. I’m of the belief that Trump has a bunch of yes men around him that are smart and able to coerce him to do these things through careful manipulation strategies and feeding into his ego.
The project 2025 people already had every executive order and move lined up ready for him. No understanding required .
I’m shocked that more people don’t consider a change in perspective on global economics. It’s been clear for a long time that the existing system is unsustainable.
I know why he did it. Because that’s what his best best friend from Kremlin said and his two last working brain cells are in vacation playing golf.
He probably doesn’t understand that if US stops all trading, will become just a bigger North Korea with nukes.
The chaos is the point: make nothing normal, make nothing certain, and he can be free to do anything.
Techbro led gvmt - move fast, break stuff. Chaos leads to opportunity to profit, by which I mean him and his class to profit.
