When Trump threatened Brazil with punishing tariffs on Wednesday, there was no fancy mathematical equation trotted out this time as justification.
The 50% levy on goods was retribution for a perceived “witch hunt” against his political ally, Jair Bolsanaro, whose supporters attempted a coup two years ago.
This administration is bringing back the law of the jungle to international trade, according to trade expert Kristen Hopewell, and time is running out to salvage the remains of a post-war system of commerce that promoted stability and prosperity across the world.
“Trump is a totally unreliable negotiating partner,” she tells Fortune. “Any deal you strike with the administration is not worth the paper it’s written on.”
If the Republican Senators and House Reps could stop licking the Donvict’s boots for a minute and start serving We the People for a moment, they could bring back the power of Taxation to the Article I Legislative branch where taxation belongs and help preserve our economy and American freedom. But our Republican “representives” are beholden to donOLD and would rather be a disgrace to the veterans of the American Revolution that shed their blood to not be taxed by an Executive Autocrat. SHAME on the pedo-loving Republicans!
Restricting free speech and lining their pockets, while taking away from our children, veterans, and retirees has been their game since time immemorial.
The Fox “News” pipeline seems to make people forget that Grandma can’t get her medications anymore and Uncle Billy who served in Iraq is denied his education because of these pricks.
Fox News still got 'em convinced they’re cutting kids dicks off, no amount of suffering on their block will overcome the imaginary fears haunting them at night.
Remember when in his first term he renegotiated NAFTA? Now that agreement is worthless.
At the time he even bragged about how smart he was to put a clause in the new agreement that will have it up for review in 2026. And then he proceeded to blow things up in 2025 instead of waiting to address up his problems during the review.
He even said it was written by idiots
He calls everything stupid
Projection.
Since the Biden administration continued its policy of blocking appointments to fill its vacancies, there is now no quorum to adjudicate trade disputes, leaving countries little incentive to abide by the rules anymore. Quite the contrary, they can break them with near impunity.
JFC. They had 4 years to do something…anything…to fix the system that allowed Trump to do this shit in the 1st place, or at least prevent him from getting back into power…and they didn’t even fucking try.
It’s almost like this was the plan, all along.
I truly think the Biden/Garland slow role on trump prosecution was so he could run against trump for what he believed would be an easy shoo-in for his reelection.
The same mistake hillary made by propping up trump when she ran as she thought there was no way people would vote for him.
Biden also didn’t want to set precedent by prosecuting a previous presidents.
Complacency. What you said makes perfect sense, then the complacency of the voter bloc who thought it ok to sit it out because they saw an easy win. I mean no one could be that dumb twice, right?
They didn’t expect the voters to be that dumb, twice.
Narrator: indeed they were
Even worse is that Americans pay for it. He’s breaking kneecaps to punish the bicycle industry.
We (the rest of the world) need to de-yankify our trade relations as soon as we can.
Yep, I can understand atlanticists thinking they could continue the relationship after Trump I as before, but with Trump’s reelection it’s just stupid to continue thinking relying on the US for security and trade is the way forward.
The world collectively should just ignore America and move on and let them be their self governing island to themselves.
I’m sure he can make a deal with rocket man later on.
But America brings so much to the table! There’s all the goods manufactured in America, there is all the creativity coming out of the American TV and movie industries, there is all the scientific research and knowledge that is totally not leaving. What about innovative software (licenses) and enshitified streaming services. America is on the cutting edge of defense and it’s partners totally trust that America would never yank away support for those weapons at the whim of a mad king or anything.
Most importantly, how will the world ever get by without the American financial system that contributes nothing to the world and demands all the wealth in return? I think the world will find America hard to shake.
(Massive /s, just in case it’s not obvious.)
The goods are overpriced and undergood. People buy them for clout, not for quality or performance. This has been true for a while now. Unless you’re talking weapons systems.
Almost like stability is important…
When this country was founded, tariff revenue was enough to fund the entire federal government. Those days are long gone, and they’re not coming back.
Nowadays, there are basically two reasons to play the tariff game. 1. Extract tariff concessions from your trading partners, and 2. Encourage domestic production. The problem is, if you’re going for #1, you have to be willing to drop your tariffs at the drop off a hat to make a deal. If you’re playing #2, the people that build factories and whatnot want assurances that the tariff supports will be in place for years and years.
So you can see that there’s an inherent trade-off between #1 and #2. To some extent, you cannot serve both masters. But Trump has been playing both strategies at the same time without a care in the world. There are… consequences… to doing that, which I am sure we will all get to experience.
Edit: okay, okay. This Bolsonaro thing is a brand new strategy #3 which I’m calling… Oh geez… I gotta go buy some more beer.
There’s a third: manipulate the market so that you can keep making more and more money at the expense of normal Americans.
Stand your ground and you will be rewarded by the TACO
Trump’s
TariffsLack of TariffsTariffsLack of TariffsTariffsLack of TariffsTariffsLack of TariffsTariffs are JENIUS BISNESS MAN MOVES!Art of the Deal.
Art of the Schlemiel
Art of the Shart
The rest of the world is just going to find out how easy it is to buy non-US goods (and potentially services) after counter tariffs. Then, the American dollar will eventually suffer hyper inflation unless the tariffs are removed. However, the damage will already be done. Reputation will be the least of their concerns…
It’s not just counter-tariffs. There are very few American companies with a completely internal supply chain. Every tariff US companies pay on their parts, materials, and outsourced labour inflate the price they then need to charge onwards, making US products themselves more expensive.
