As we’ve seen in this admin, things are always in motion and never stuck in the mud.
So we will see how these deals turn out for the long term benefit of America.
But one thing is for certain: something msjor had to be done. Constantly losing ground to other nations was not sustainable. Sure, you might get a cheaper iPhone today, but you may not even be able to get an iPhone tomorrow.
I’ll take long term over short term any day.
Except, there's no long-term gain to be had, and just more wealth shifting up away from the middle class to the upper on this path.
If he really wanted to restore manufacturing to the US, he'd fund education to the maximum extent possible. We do not have the manufacturing manpower base or educated populace needed to do this!
He and his party are doing the opposite.
"Things are always in motion" is not a good thing for international trade relations or US businesses that don't know what to expect, or budget for, on a day-to-day basis.
It’s been 5 months. And the tarriffs less than that. And deals still in motion. Can hardly conclude what you’re saying from that.
Is it possible it doesn’t work as hoped? Sure. We live in an uncertain and imperfect world full of people acting in bad faith, etc. but is it worth a shot? 100%. The alternative is to continue to decline. One way it’s much closer to certainty of success is if one group of people stop attacking the guy every time he breathes, and gets behind what’s obviously a noble goal, things would go much smoother and have a better outcome.
Manpower is fully available. Have you looked at the unemployment rates? Education is a matter of training. Unfortunately, much of what passes for education today has little to do with reading, writing, and arithmetic. That’s thanks to a partisan led federal education department. The states do a better job. Almost anyone can learn how to do repetitive things, no matter how detailed. The key is starting. Sure it takes time. But it never happens unless you start. A lot of unemployed people today would love to have these jobs.
Things being in motion refers to the agility of the current admin and their near unprecedented ability to pivot in an instant, constantly evaluating and executing.Not just rolling with something bevause they already were heading in that direction. If it’s not advancing favorably, the smart thing to do is pivot. And keeping things in motion also helps guard against letting bad faith heads of state pin them down to bad deals.
China is tough. Bevause of the usa pressing the “easy button” decades ago, we have built up an enemy into being a major force on the world stage. It will not be easy to wean off of the “cheap” Chinese manufacturing, but it will be the wise thing to get started on. If not, the ISA will just keep declining until it’s no longer the superpower it has been. If the answer is not what the President is doing, it’s certainly not also the status quo - or worse, pouring even more money into our adversaries - or even other economies in general.
Bold and italics mine. This is a ridiculous assessment of what this administration does. Fire, Ready, Fire, with no "aim" step and a "ready, fire" sequence out of order is no way to run a global trade program, much less a lemonade stand. There's no plan. There's just a hope that this will work, and design to shift money up and out of the middle class.
I'm with you on "China is tough." But, that's about all in this few paragraphs that I agree with. High tech US manufacturing that the CHIPS act started is not going well, and that's been years. The US has been cutting funding to education in a bipartisan effort for half a century. No education effort. No "Almost anyone can learn how to do repetitive things, no matter how detailed" effort.
Look up "No child left behind" and where we are now, and which administration started the requirement to educate for tests, not for learning, and tell me it's a partisan-led federal education department. The states do not do a better job, and there's no realistic way you can say that.
Penalizing US businesses and therefore US consumers to do this isn't the way to do it. Not funding education and further cutting for the umpteenth time with the big beautiful bill is not the way to do it.
Could it work? Maybe. Is it likely to? No.
It's more likely to crush small businesses in favor of the big ones, and drive the middle class deeper into debt.
While I tend to agree on msny of your other topics, It’s obvious we disagree fundamentally on most of not all things related to the current administration.
I’ll agree to disagree. As far as who turns out to be right? We shall see.
The tariffs are a complete and total disaster, bruh.
But I gotta say that I really enjoy seeing you twist your brain into a mental pretzel trying to rationalize the decisions of someone who "doesn't know what the fuck they're doing." (TacoMan's words, not mine)
The only mental acrobatics are coming from the side pretending this didn’t need to be done. No ine said it would be easy or quick. Just that it is a much needed beginning to strengthen our standing.
When you have to lie and make false statements the. You are most certainly the person doing mental acrobatics. That you can’t make your case without falsehoods only understanding how weak your argument is. You would get a lot further if engaged in an intellectually honest discussion.
The more commenters who react to a poster’s nonsense, the more attention the poster receives, which is exactly what he/she wants.
As a slight aside, I would be much happier if the response buttons were labeled Agree and Disagree instead of Like/Dislike. There are several instances where I don’t agree with someone’s comment, but I respect their opinion and willingness to chime in on the subject. The words Like/Dislike seem too personal. Maybe it’s just me.
I have mixed feelings about responding to people like them. The whole MAGA thing is fueled by grievance and misinformation. That the movement is very much based on the idea that the means justify the end. Sol like our resident cult member, they have no issues with lying or spreading misinformation. Nothing to do about the grievance but calling out the misinformation is important. Do note that anytime someone provides actual data or citations that they never respond. It’s like the light of truth sends them running. It exposes the as the intellectually dishonest cowards that they are.
Agree on the like/dislike. I won’t use the dislike, it just seems petty.
As we’ve seen in this admin, things are always in motion and never stuck in the mud.
So we will see how these deals turn out for the long term benefit of America.
But one thing is for certain: something msjor had to be done. Constantly losing ground to other nations was not sustainable. Sure, you might get a cheaper iPhone today, but you may not even be able to get an iPhone tomorrow.
I’ll take long term over short term any day.
Except, there's no long-term gain to be had, and just more wealth shifting up away from the middle class to the upper on this path.
If he really wanted to restore manufacturing to the US, he'd fund education to the maximum extent possible. We do not have the manufacturing manpower base or educated populace needed to do this!
He and his party are doing the opposite.
"Things are always in motion" is not a good thing for international trade relations or US businesses that don't know what to expect, or budget for, on a day-to-day basis.
It’s been 5 months. And the tarriffs less than that. And deals still in motion. Can hardly conclude what you’re saying from that.
Is it possible it doesn’t work as hoped? Sure. We live in an uncertain and imperfect world full of people acting in bad faith, etc. but is it worth a shot? 100%. The alternative is to continue to decline. One way it’s much closer to certainty of success is if one group of people stop attacking the guy every time he breathes, and gets behind what’s obviously a noble goal, things would go much smoother and have a better outcome.
Manpower is fully available. Have you looked at the unemployment rates? Education is a matter of training. Unfortunately, much of what passes for education today has little to do with reading, writing, and arithmetic. That’s thanks to a partisan led federal education department. The states do a better job. Almost anyone can learn how to do repetitive things, no matter how detailed. The key is starting. Sure it takes time. But it never happens unless you start. A lot of unemployed people today would love to have these jobs.
Things being in motion refers to the agility of the current admin and their near unprecedented ability to pivot in an instant, constantly evaluating and executing.Not just rolling with something bevause they already were heading in that direction. If it’s not advancing favorably, the smart thing to do is pivot. And keeping things in motion also helps guard against letting bad faith heads of state pin them down to bad deals.
China is tough. Bevause of the usa pressing the “easy button” decades ago, we have built up an enemy into being a major force on the world stage. It will not be easy to wean off of the “cheap” Chinese manufacturing, but it will be the wise thing to get started on. If not, the ISA will just keep declining until it’s no longer the superpower it has been. If the answer is not what the President is doing, it’s certainly not also the status quo - or worse, pouring even more money into our adversaries - or even other economies in general.
Bold and italics mine. This is a ridiculous assessment of what this administration does. Fire, Ready, Fire, with no "aim" step and a "ready, fire" sequence out of order is no way to run a global trade program, much less a lemonade stand. There's no plan. There's just a hope that this will work, and design to shift money up and out of the middle class.
I'm with you on "China is tough." But, that's about all in this few paragraphs that I agree with. High tech US manufacturing that the CHIPS act started is not going well, and that's been years. The US has been cutting funding to education in a bipartisan effort for half a century. No education effort. No "Almost anyone can learn how to do repetitive things, no matter how detailed" effort.
Look up "No child left behind" and where we are now, and which administration started the requirement to educate for tests, not for learning, and tell me it's a partisan-led federal education department. The states do not do a better job, and there's no realistic way you can say that.
Penalizing US businesses and therefore US consumers to do this isn't the way to do it. Not funding education and further cutting for the umpteenth time with the big beautiful bill is not the way to do it.
Could it work? Maybe. Is it likely to? No.
It's more likely to crush small businesses in favor of the big ones, and drive the middle class deeper into debt.
While I tend to agree on msny of your other topics, It’s obvious we disagree fundamentally on most of not all things related to the current administration.
I’ll agree to disagree. As far as who turns out to be right? We shall see.
The tariffs are a complete and total disaster, bruh.
But I gotta say that I really enjoy seeing you twist your brain into a mental pretzel trying to rationalize the decisions of someone who "doesn't know what the fuck they're doing." (TacoMan's words, not mine)
The only mental acrobatics are coming from the side pretending this didn’t need to be done. No ine said it would be easy or quick. Just that it is a much needed beginning to strengthen our standing.
When you have to lie and make false statements the. You are most certainly the person doing mental acrobatics. That you can’t make your case without falsehoods only understanding how weak your argument is. You would get a lot further if engaged in an intellectually honest discussion.
There is an interesting partial parallel to the actions of supporters of President Biden during his term, and now supporters of Trump during his. Biden supporters tried hard to gloss over his age related issues, particularly trying to explain away gaffes, fumbles and incoherence when Biden was speaking, claiming in the face of clear evidence otherwise that Biden was vigorous and energetic as ever. Now we have our friend here doing the same for President Trump while we can all see that the wannabe empower is naked as a jay bird, and not in a pretty way.
The difference, of course, is that while Biden himself was faltering, the big policies his administration was putting forth were solid. Biden supporters were mainly fearful that his age created a vulnerability that could lead to Trump’s reelection, which it did. That notwithstanding, while Trump 45’s infrastructure bill was always two weeks away, Biden passed a generational infrastructure bill that still has Republican members of Congress who voted against it showing up to groundbreakings and ribbon-cuttings in their districts, pretending they were all for it. After Putin invaded Ukraine, Biden pulled NATO back together (after Trump weakened and threatened to pull the US out) with such strength that Russia still hasn’t achieved the win that they thought would only take a few weeks. (Both sadly and darkly hilariously, NATO leaders finally figured out that heaping praise and compliments on Trump was all it takes to get him to flip and suddenly support the alliance, at least for now.)
Now we have our friend here ..trying not only to attribute coherence where there is none not only to the person, but to the policies and administration. It’s not just that President Trump can’t coherently explain his tariff policy in speeches or to the press, it’s that the policy itself is every bit as incoherent as he is, and that his cabinet and lieutenants were all selected for loyalty, not expertise or competence, and are thus attempting to implement whatever he says at the moment, which is why the policies are as incoherent as the president.
So here, as the reality of inconsistency and incoherence becomes nearly impossible to explain away, our friend applies we shall see brand lipstick to that pig and then leans hard on the urgency that something had to be done, and at least this is something. That of course falls apart, too, because there was no urgency required here. Trade deficits were nowhere on anyone’s radar during the election that took place only months ago. Nobody voted for this. In fact, they voted for the opposite: economic stability and lower prices in the face of lingering inflation. There was no international incident or economic crisis since November that suddenly made urgent trade policy action necessary. No, the whole tariff regime is a product of Donald Trump’s mind, either as an obsession, or as a distraction from other, even more awful things his administration is doing, or most likely, both. There’s just no explaining any of that away.
Trade deficits were nowhere on anyone’s radar during the election that took place only months ago. Nobody voted for this.
While campaigning for his second term as US president, Trump pledged even larger tariffs than his first term,
including 60% on China, 100% on Mexico, and 20% on all other countries.
He also proposed tariffs to penalize US companies that outsourced
manufacturing, such as a 200% tariff on John Deere.
.... - Universal baseline tariffs on most foreign products, which will increase incrementally if other countries manipulate their currency or "otherwise engage in unfair trading practices", and lowering taxes. Revoking China's Most Favored Nation trade status, gradually stopping all Chinese imports of essential goods, stopping American companies from investing in China, and banning federal contracts for any company that outsources to China. - Decreasing trade deficits, especially with China. ....
Trade deficits were nowhere on anyone’s radar during the election that took place only months ago. Nobody voted for this.
While campaigning for his second term as US president, Trump pledged even larger tariffs than his first term,
including 60% on China, 100% on Mexico, and 20% on all other countries.
He also proposed tariffs to penalize US companies that outsourced
manufacturing, such as a 200% tariff on John Deere.
.... - Universal baseline tariffs on most foreign products, which will increase incrementally if other countries manipulate their currency or "otherwise engage in unfair trading practices", and lowering taxes. Revoking China's Most Favored Nation trade status, gradually stopping all Chinese imports of essential goods, stopping American companies from investing in China, and banning federal contracts for any company that outsources to China. - Decreasing trade deficits, especially with China. ....
That was a lot of revisionist history from AppleZulu. Not sure I'd call 8 calendar months "only months ago" based on the context of his comment. Use any search engine with a date before the election and you'll find countless articles and videos on how Trump doesn't understand tariffs and how actual experts with business, finance, and economics say this will hurt the US.
Trade deficits were nowhere on anyone’s radar during the election that took place only months ago. Nobody voted for this.
While campaigning for his second term as US president, Trump pledged even larger tariffs than his first term,
including 60% on China, 100% on Mexico, and 20% on all other countries.
He also proposed tariffs to penalize US companies that outsourced
manufacturing, such as a 200% tariff on John Deere.
.... - Universal baseline tariffs on most foreign products, which will increase incrementally if other countries manipulate their currency or "otherwise engage in unfair trading practices", and lowering taxes. Revoking China's Most Favored Nation trade status, gradually stopping all Chinese imports of essential goods, stopping American companies from investing in China, and banning federal contracts for any company that outsources to China. - Decreasing trade deficits, especially with China. ....
That was a lot of revisionist history from AppleZulu. Not sure I'd call 8 calendar months "only months ago" based on the context of his comment. Use any search engine with a date before the election and you'll find countless articles and videos on how Trump doesn't understand tariffs and how actual experts with business, finance, and economics say this will hurt the US.
Trade was at the bottom among issues concerning 2024 voters. There was no urgency.
Trade deficits were nowhere on anyone’s radar during the election that took place only months ago. Nobody voted for this.
While campaigning for his second term as US president, Trump pledged even larger tariffs than his first term,
including 60% on China, 100% on Mexico, and 20% on all other countries.
He also proposed tariffs to penalize US companies that outsourced
manufacturing, such as a 200% tariff on John Deere.
.... - Universal baseline tariffs on most foreign products, which will increase incrementally if other countries manipulate their currency or "otherwise engage in unfair trading practices", and lowering taxes. Revoking China's Most Favored Nation trade status, gradually stopping all Chinese imports of essential goods, stopping American companies from investing in China, and banning federal contracts for any company that outsources to China. - Decreasing trade deficits, especially with China. ....
That was a lot of revisionist history from AppleZulu. Not sure I'd call 8 calendar months "only months ago" based on the context of his comment. Use any search engine with a date before the election and you'll find countless articles and videos on how Trump doesn't understand tariffs and how actual experts with business, finance, and economics say this will hurt the US.
Trade was at the bottom among issues concerning 2024 voters. There was no urgency.
You first stated they "were nowhere on anyone’s radar" and now you're saying they were less important than other issues accordion got a single Gallop poll. So which is it? Trump had said nothing that made the news or that it's not that important to voters?
PS: You need to learn to read those results better. 64% said that trade with other nations was extremely to very important, with 95% of those polled saying it was important.
Trade deficits were nowhere on anyone’s radar during the election that took place only months ago. Nobody voted for this.
While campaigning for his second term as US president, Trump pledged even larger tariffs than his first term,
including 60% on China, 100% on Mexico, and 20% on all other countries.
He also proposed tariffs to penalize US companies that outsourced
manufacturing, such as a 200% tariff on John Deere.
.... - Universal baseline tariffs on most foreign products, which will increase incrementally if other countries manipulate their currency or "otherwise engage in unfair trading practices", and lowering taxes. Revoking China's Most Favored Nation trade status, gradually stopping all Chinese imports of essential goods, stopping American companies from investing in China, and banning federal contracts for any company that outsources to China. - Decreasing trade deficits, especially with China. ....
That was a lot of revisionist history from AppleZulu. Not sure I'd call 8 calendar months "only months ago" based on the context of his comment. Use any search engine with a date before the election and you'll find countless articles and videos on how Trump doesn't understand tariffs and how actual experts with business, finance, and economics say this will hurt the US.
Trade was at the bottom among issues concerning 2024 voters. There was no urgency.
You first stated they "were nowhere on anyone’s radar" and now you're saying they were less important than other issues accordion got a single Gallop poll. So which is it? Trump had said nothing that made the news or that it's not that important to voters?
PS: You need to learn to read those results better. 64% said that trade with other nations was extremely to very important, with 95% of those polled saying it was important.
I can read the chart, and out of 22 issues voters were asked about, “trade with other nations” was 20th out of 22 when sorted for “extremely important.” If you add “extremely important” and “very important” together and sort for that, the issue moves up to a whopping 17th of 22 in importance.
If you read further, you see that among partisan Republicans and republican-leaning independents the issue isn't in the top five. In the next chart, the issue comes out 12th out of 22, so not even in the top half among presumably the people most likely to have voted for Trump.
Issues that far down the list are not determinative in how people vote, e.g., not on anyone’s radar.
30 years ago people took the the streets in states across the US to protest the move towards globalization with protests agains NAFTA and WTO and now the predictable results are here and the US politicians most who were adults back in the mid 90s themselves are telling the citizens they should pay more for what their mistake. There is no accountability for what was an obvious bad move. Citizens did not cause the trade imbalance in fact it cost us in lost jobs.
Bush started NAFTA, but Clinton signed it into law. Obama worked the the Trans Pacific Partnership, so he was no fan of keeping manufacturing jobs in the US. Did these politicians really believe in these programs? Or were they after big political donations? Biden did nothing for the average American worker. As I see it Trump is the only politician who’s given a darn about the American worker.
30 years ago people took the the streets in states across the US to protest the move towards globalization with protests agains NAFTA and WTO and now the predictable results are here and the US politicians most who were adults back in the mid 90s themselves are telling the citizens they should pay more for what their mistake. There is no accountability for what was an obvious bad move. Citizens did not cause the trade imbalance in fact it cost us in lost jobs.
Bush started NAFTA, but Clinton signed it into law. Obama worked the the Trans Pacific Partnership, so he was no fan of keeping manufacturing jobs in the US. Did these politicians really believe in these programs? Or were they after big political donations? Biden did nothing for the average American worker. As I see it Trump is the only politician who’s given a darn about the American worker.
Trump sure gives it a lot of lip service, but then makes millions selling Chinese-made bibles and next up a Chinese made phone, both wrapped in the American flag and gilded with his branding. Now he’s pushing tariffs that increase prices for American workers, while seeking deals that undermine any premise that this is about protecting or creating American jobs. Next up, his budget bill that cuts services and protections for average Americans while cutting taxes even more for corporations and very wealthy individuals. It baffles me when people look at this guy whose whole identity is wrapped up in being conspicuously wealthy and who has a long history as a “businessman” of stiffing contractors and small businesses, and think, “this guy really cares about American workers.”
It’s a fair criticism that Democrats have also bought into the corporatist globalism that incentivized shipping American jobs overseas. What’s ridiculous is believing that Republicans, led by billionaire Donald Trump, are the people who will fix that for you.
As we’ve seen in this admin, things are always in motion and never stuck in the mud.
So we will see how these deals turn out for the long term benefit of America.
But one thing is for certain: something msjor had to be done. Constantly losing ground to other nations was not sustainable. Sure, you might get a cheaper iPhone today, but you may not even be able to get an iPhone tomorrow.
I’ll take long term over short term any day.
Except, there's no long-term gain to be had, and just more wealth shifting up away from the middle class to the upper on this path.
If he really wanted to restore manufacturing to the US, he'd fund education to the maximum extent possible. We do not have the manufacturing manpower base or educated populace needed to do this!
He and his party are doing the opposite.
"Things are always in motion" is not a good thing for international trade relations or US businesses that don't know what to expect, or budget for, on a day-to-day basis.
It’s been 5 months. And the tarriffs less than that. And deals still in motion. Can hardly conclude what you’re saying from that.
Is it possible it doesn’t work as hoped? Sure. We live in an uncertain and imperfect world full of people acting in bad faith, etc. but is it worth a shot? 100%. The alternative is to continue to decline. One way it’s much closer to certainty of success is if one group of people stop attacking the guy every time he breathes, and gets behind what’s obviously a noble goal, things would go much smoother and have a better outcome.
Manpower is fully available. Have you looked at the unemployment rates? Education is a matter of training. Unfortunately, much of what passes for education today has little to do with reading, writing, and arithmetic. That’s thanks to a partisan led federal education department. The states do a better job. Almost anyone can learn how to do repetitive things, no matter how detailed. The key is starting. Sure it takes time. But it never happens unless you start. A lot of unemployed people today would love to have these jobs.
Things being in motion refers to the agility of the current admin and their near unprecedented ability to pivot in an instant, constantly evaluating and executing.Not just rolling with something bevause they already were heading in that direction. If it’s not advancing favorably, the smart thing to do is pivot. And keeping things in motion also helps guard against letting bad faith heads of state pin them down to bad deals.
China is tough. Bevause of the usa pressing the “easy button” decades ago, we have built up an enemy into being a major force on the world stage. It will not be easy to wean off of the “cheap” Chinese manufacturing, but it will be the wise thing to get started on. If not, the ISA will just keep declining until it’s no longer the superpower it has been. If the answer is not what the President is doing, it’s certainly not also the status quo - or worse, pouring even more money into our adversaries - or even other economies in general.
Bold and italics mine. This is a ridiculous assessment of what this administration does. Fire, Ready, Fire, with no "aim" step and a "ready, fire" sequence out of order is no way to run a global trade program, much less a lemonade stand. There's no plan. There's just a hope that this will work, and design to shift money up and out of the middle class.
I'm with you on "China is tough." But, that's about all in this few paragraphs that I agree with. High tech US manufacturing that the CHIPS act started is not going well, and that's been years. The US has been cutting funding to education in a bipartisan effort for half a century. No education effort. No "Almost anyone can learn how to do repetitive things, no matter how detailed" effort.
Look up "No child left behind" and where we are now, and which administration started the requirement to educate for tests, not for learning, and tell me it's a partisan-led federal education department. The states do not do a better job, and there's no realistic way you can say that.
Penalizing US businesses and therefore US consumers to do this isn't the way to do it. Not funding education and further cutting for the umpteenth time with the big beautiful bill is not the way to do it.
Could it work? Maybe. Is it likely to? No.
It's more likely to crush small businesses in favor of the big ones, and drive the middle class deeper into debt.
While I tend to agree on msny of your other topics, It’s obvious we disagree fundamentally on most of not all things related to the current administration.
I’ll agree to disagree. As far as who turns out to be right? We shall see.
The tariffs are a complete and total disaster, bruh.
But I gotta say that I really enjoy seeing you twist your brain into a mental pretzel trying to rationalize the decisions of someone who "doesn't know what the fuck they're doing." (TacoMan's words, not mine)
The only mental acrobatics are coming from the side pretending this didn’t need to be done. No ine said it would be easy or quick. Just that it is a much needed beginning to strengthen our standing.
When you have to lie and make false statements the. You are most certainly the person doing mental acrobatics. That you can’t make your case without falsehoods only understanding how weak your argument is. You would get a lot further if engaged in an intellectually honest discussion.
There is an interesting partial parallel to the actions of supporters of President Biden during his term, and now supporters of Trump during his. Biden supporters tried hard to gloss over his age related issues, particularly trying to explain away gaffes, fumbles and incoherence when Biden was speaking, claiming in the face of clear evidence otherwise that Biden was vigorous and energetic as ever. Now we have our friend here doing the same for President Trump while we can all see that the wannabe empower is naked as a jay bird, and not in a pretty way.
The difference, of course, is that while Biden himself was faltering, the big policies his administration was putting forth were solid. Biden supporters were mainly fearful that his age created a vulnerability that could lead to Trump’s reelection, which it did. That notwithstanding, while Trump 45’s infrastructure bill was always two weeks away, Biden passed a generational infrastructure bill that still has Republican members of Congress who voted against it showing up to groundbreakings and ribbon-cuttings in their districts, pretending they were all for it. After Putin invaded Ukraine, Biden pulled NATO back together (after Trump weakened and threatened to pull the US out) with such strength that Russia still hasn’t achieved the win that they thought would only take a few weeks. (Both sadly and darkly hilariously, NATO leaders finally figured out that heaping praise and compliments on Trump was all it takes to get him to flip and suddenly support the alliance, at least for now.)
Now we have our friend here ..trying not only to attribute coherence where there is none not only to the person, but to the policies and administration. It’s not just that President Trump can’t coherently explain his tariff policy in speeches or to the press, it’s that the policy itself is every bit as incoherent as he is, and that his cabinet and lieutenants were all selected for loyalty, not expertise or competence, and are thus attempting to implement whatever he says at the moment, which is why the policies are as incoherent as the president.
So here, as the reality of inconsistency and incoherence becomes nearly impossible to explain away, our friend applies we shall see brand lipstick to that pig and then leans hard on the urgency that something had to be done, and at least this is something. That of course falls apart, too, because there was no urgency required here. Trade deficits were nowhere on anyone’s radar during the election that took place only months ago. Nobody voted for this. In fact, they voted for the opposite: economic stability and lower prices in the face of lingering inflation. There was no international incident or economic crisis since November that suddenly made urgent trade policy action necessary. No, the whole tariff regime is a product of Donald Trump’s mind, either as an obsession, or as a distraction from other, even more awful things his administration is doing, or most likely, both. There’s just no explaining any of that away.
I don’t disagree with what you are saying. Policy aside, I think the big difference in the situations is that it took a fairly short bit of time for the Biden supporters to change their mind and realize he wasn’t fit to run for president in 2024. Trump has never been fit to serve as president and his supporters are still in complete denial.
All mainstream media: Anything orange man does bad, Democrats good.
And the last four years, all MAGA outlets was anything Biden did was bad, and the infinite reverberation of Make America Great Again (it *was* already great, not any more). Back atcha...
Comments
The difference, of course, is that while Biden himself was faltering, the big policies his administration was putting forth were solid. Biden supporters were mainly fearful that his age created a vulnerability that could lead to Trump’s reelection, which it did. That notwithstanding, while Trump 45’s infrastructure bill was always two weeks away, Biden passed a generational infrastructure bill that still has Republican members of Congress who voted against it showing up to groundbreakings and ribbon-cuttings in their districts, pretending they were all for it. After Putin invaded Ukraine, Biden pulled NATO back together (after Trump weakened and threatened to pull the US out) with such strength that Russia still hasn’t achieved the win that they thought would only take a few weeks. (Both sadly and darkly hilariously, NATO leaders finally figured out that heaping praise and compliments on Trump was all it takes to get him to flip and suddenly support the alliance, at least for now.)
Now we have our friend here ..trying not only to attribute coherence where there is none not only to the person, but to the policies and administration. It’s not just that President Trump can’t coherently explain his tariff policy in speeches or to the press, it’s that the policy itself is every bit as incoherent as he is, and that his cabinet and lieutenants were all selected for loyalty, not expertise or competence, and are thus attempting to implement whatever he says at the moment, which is why the policies are as incoherent as the president.
So here, as the reality of inconsistency and incoherence becomes nearly impossible to explain away, our friend applies we shall see brand lipstick to that pig and then leans hard on the urgency that something had to be done, and at least this is something. That of course falls apart, too, because there was no urgency required here. Trade deficits were nowhere on anyone’s radar during the election that took place only months ago. Nobody voted for this. In fact, they voted for the opposite: economic stability and lower prices in the face of lingering inflation. There was no international incident or economic crisis since November that suddenly made urgent trade policy action necessary. No, the whole tariff regime is a product of Donald Trump’s mind, either as an obsession, or as a distraction from other, even more awful things his administration is doing, or most likely, both. There’s just no explaining any of that away.
....
- Universal baseline tariffs on most foreign products, which will increase incrementally if other countries manipulate their currency or "otherwise engage in unfair trading practices", and lowering taxes. Revoking China's Most Favored Nation trade status, gradually stopping all Chinese imports of essential goods, stopping American companies from investing in China, and banning federal contracts for any company that outsources to China.
- Decreasing trade deficits, especially with China.
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PS: You need to learn to read those results better. 64% said that trade with other nations was extremely to very important, with 95% of those polled saying it was important.
If you read further, you see that among partisan Republicans and republican-leaning independents the issue isn't in the top five. In the next chart, the issue comes out 12th out of 22, so not even in the top half among presumably the people most likely to have voted for Trump.