International What is the real reason for Trump's tariffs?

[curryjunkie]

It would be easier to order these if we understood the geopolitical realignment we are seeing unfold and why.

I don't have those answers but it seems obvious America is getting ready to take on China in the near future.

by occupying greenland?

 

[Natural Order]

Melania gave Justin "fuck me" eyes and more action than the Rotund Retard has seen in 15 years.

That's why. Add it to the list Mikey!

 

[Siver!]

Melania gave Justin "fuck me" eyes and more action than the Rotund Retard has seen in 15 years.

That's why. Add it to the list Mikey!

Any word on if Sheinbaum turned Trump down for a pussy grab?

 

[Cid]

Economic incompetence.

Most people don't understand basic economics. I don't think Trump is any different.

 

[ermac88]

These are the main tariff theories I've seen, but none of them fully make sense and even the reasons that Trump himself gave are incompatible with each other:


1) To combat Security Risks. It's what he said regarding Fentanyl. Might make sense for Mexico or possibly China, but makes no sense that he's also tariffing countries like Australia or Canada, and he hasn't even stated what specific demands he wants fulfilled to remove the tariffs.

2) To bring back manufacturing to the US. He also gave this as a reason, and if true it would mean what he said about #1 above is not true. But if this is his goal, it makes no sense to use blanket tariffs instead of targeting specific industries, and it doesn't explain why he keeps going back and forth pausing/unpausing the tariffs instead of just laying out his plan.

3) To negotiate better trade deals. This would maybe explain why he keeps going back and forth pausing/unpausing tariffs. It would mean that what he said in #1 #2 & #4 are false but would sort of explain why he stated them (misdirection). This is the one I'd want to be true, but it assumes the most guile out of Trump, and also doesn't make sense because NAFTA is up for review in 2026 anyway, so it would make more sense to just renegotiate during that window. By doing it this way, he seems to be damaging relationships with trading partners and causing mistrust, which is not conductive to free trade.

4) To raise revenue to fund tax cuts. He specifically said tariffs will make the US rich again. This would mean #1, & #3 are false because he's not using the tariffs to negotiate. Also #2 would be false because if manufacturing were truly brought back to the US, then the tariffs wouldn't be generating much revenue as there would be little importing. Tax cuts are the standard Republican MO, but this still doesn't explain why he keeps going back and forth pausing/unpausing etc.

5) To disrupt the US's standing with the rest of the world, strengthen ties with Russia, or cause a stock market crash so that the wealthy can buy up the stocks at discount. Basically Krasnov theory... I don't believe its his true goal, but some of it may end up being unintended consequences. It would explain the erratic back and forth on/off with the tariffs fwiw.


Notice that pretty much all of these theories (except for maybe #5) must be mutually exclusive for them to truly fulfill their stated purpose.

So which one do you think is the true motive behind the tariffs?

Something no one is talking about-

6) Could trump just be full-out deranged at this point?



Him stating Ukraine invaded Russia was a new milestone in incoherent craziness, even beyond annexing Canada,

He hasnt been able to cogently explain impetus and leaders in both Canada and Mexico say he flip flops on a daily basis what his alleged goals are.

 

[ermac88]

It's none of the above.

But all of them make sense when you understand Trump's true motivation in life.

Trump's primary motivation whether he's promoting policy, whether he's doing a television, show an interview, a debate or anything else in his life is to sow chaos hatred and division.

Trump is a sower of chaos, hatred and division because he's so morally, despicable and evil and feels that way all the time within himself, his motive is always to spread hatred, chaos, and division.

Once you understand Trump in this way, everything he does makes perfect sense even when those things seem to contradict each other or his stated goals..... because you understand the primary underlying motive.

I would say secondary motives for him are to deeply harm certain specific people (deeply related to his primary motives) to get richer himself or to become more popular or look better himself. I think those are his secondary motives.

So with Canada and Mexico and other world allies he gets to hurt people that he hates and he hates them because he's not their equal and he cannot exist in relationship with them without revealing himself to be a despicable base inferior human being. Trump hates all of our allies world leaders for the same reason. He has seething hatred for them because he will forever feel inferior and broken and will do everything he can to harm people he sees and resets as better than him.

His general move towards allying with strong men, dictators and thugs is because he feels more at home and more in good company around them and less intimidated by them. They themselves also being despicable people.


Trump's place is as a shyster car salesman, dishonest land developer or real estate mogul and the runner of various scams and cons. He's a powerful guy but that's his lane.

He should have never been put into the office of presidency. He has no place there and he is completely and utterly unfit to be there.

 

[EL CORINTHIAN]

If by take on you mean sell out to, then I agree.

What do you mean exactly?

by occupying greenland?

It's a part of the equation. Dominance of the arctic region is a pretty good check on China.

 

[panamaican]

The real reason is #1 - #4. This is a man who sees tariffs as the hammer and every international problem as a nail.

It's appeal, to him, is its simplicity.

Make things more expensive for the other guy until he caves on what you want. I've pointed out before this is how he handled disputes with his contractors. There he used the economic hammer of litigation to force concessions out of them. He thinks tariffs work the same way on the international stage. The problem is that the hammer isn't big enough.

In real estate, you own the parcel. The work has been done. There is no recourse for the contractor except to mitigate the cost of litigation by conceding. On the international stage, we don't own the parcel. The work to be done is in the future. So the target of the tariffs can mitigate the damage by striking new deals, imposing retaliatory costs on us, etc.

Trump thinks they can't mitigate. We'll find out but I think we're nearing an emperor with no clothes situation where the US is the emperor and Trump is about to make the rest of the world realize just how well they can do without us.

 

[MeatheadMike]

bring back manufacturing in specific sectors.

Ok but then why use blanket tarriffs instead of target only the sectors he wants to bring manufacturing back in?

 

[UFCUCF]

#4
The Billionaires want to do away with the federal income tax. This would massively shift the tax burden to middle and lower classes.

 

[MeatheadMike]

In order:

2, 3 ,4, 1, 5

It's never only 1 reason.

All of them can't be true at once. If the tarriffs are meant to bring back manufacturing, then they arent being used as a negotiation tool because they are meant to stay rather than be lifted once the other countries acquiesce to his demands.

Also if they are successful in detering imports to bring manufacturing back, that means they won't be generating revenue from imports. See that's why alot of it makes no sense

 

[nixkid]

It's clearly #4 and maybe a little of #5.

#5 is hard to say because he can't really put tariffs on Russia because of the sanctions. But if we had normal relations and he uncharacteristically decided that all of our trade with Russia was fair and didn't require tariffs while he slapped tariffs on basically every Western country...that would be telling.

#4 is obvious. A $4 trillion tax cut will absolutely explode the deficit without offsetting cuts. That's the purpose of DOGE. But they know that they can't cut the federal government enough to make the deficit number palatable. So in comes the tariffs.

In reality, they will never get anywhere near $4 trillion with just cuts and tariffs if they don't touch Medicare or military spending. But they don't really have any other options. At least we are past the days of Republicans pretending that the tax cuts pay for themselves. I guess that's progress in some way. Of course, their solution is to destroy the government and bring international commerce to a halt rather than, ya know, not giving the richest 0.01% a big tax cut.

 

[Andy Capp]

What do you mean exactly?

#6
Trump has allied himself with America's enemies and is doing everything he can to damage its allies.

 

[Satsui Ryu]

To tell the public it is 1, 2, and 3. The reality is likely 5 and 6 with a 7 being the ability to use this to easily generate favorable headlines. The right loves the perception of someone who dominates and these tariffs give off that perception.

The thing about 1, 2, and 3 is that they are all inherently different things and all require specific approaches to work on. Simply extorting countries will not fix things if they even need to be fixed. Also I will add a 7.5, as Trump probably wants to do something that is as easy to understand as possible as he wants something that can easily be eaten up by the masses. Doing anything complicated or that requires nuance will not fit in something that our ADHD-riddled society will not further look into.

 

[N13]

I think the long term goal is to use tariffs to force the other nations to eliminate their tariffs on us.

The result: Free Trade.

Example: When Germany realizes that they cannot sell their cars in the US market, they will lower their tariffs on us. Then US automakers can finally sell US cars and trucks in Germany.

 

[MeatheadMike]

I'm reminded most of the Glass Onion. Sometimes rich and powerful people really are just that stupid.

None of the above .

He doesn’t know how Tarriffs work and he’s got an autistic guy with money advising him as well on business decisions and where to cut the budget .

Number 5 is just a give me he’s doing that using Ukraine .

I agree that general stupidy is usually a good explanation for things that make no sense. But given the fact that Trump had no political or law experience before being elected president... It's highly likely that he didn't even know the president has power to set tarriffs unilaterally

In other words it's highly likey this tariff idea wasn't his. So his own ignorance or stupidity doesn't fully explain the true motive behind the tariff plan.

 

[MeatheadMike]

It's clearly #4 and maybe a little of #5.

#5 is hard to say because he can't really put tariffs on Russia because of the sanctions. But if we had normal relations and he uncharacteristically decided that all of our trade with Russia was fair and didn't require tariffs while he slapped tariffs on basically every Western country...that would be telling.

#4 is obvious. A $4 trillion tax cut will absolutely explode the deficit without offsetting cuts. That's the purpose of DOGE. But they know that they can't cut the federal government enough to make the deficit number palatable. So in comes the tariffs.

In reality, they will never get anywhere near $4 trillion with just cuts and tariffs if they don't touch Medicare or military spending. But they don't really have any other options. At least we are past the days of Republicans pretending that the tax cuts pay for themselves. I guess that's progress in some way. Of course, their solution is to destroy the government and bring international commerce to a halt rather than, ya know, not giving the richest 0.01% a big tax cut.

#4 (Revenue for tax cuts) is the reason that it think it is most. The goal is standard Republican operating procedure but with a different twist.

I just don't get why he keeps pausingthe tarriffs and going back and forth. Why not just execute the plan cleanly

 

[WhitestKidU’Know]

I think he wants to secure a mineral deal with Canada, Greenland, and Mexico. Similar to the Ukraine deal but with some obvious differences. I think the US government is really starting to gear up for confrontation with China over Tiwan. Xi Jinping is almost 72 and he wants Tiwan before he's gone.

I think more evidence is provided to support my theory in the facts that Trump wants peace with Iran and Russia. The US military might be great, but it can't fight the PLA, IRGC and Russian armies all at the same time.

 

[Voodoo_Child906]

All of them can't be true at once. If the tarriffs are meant to bring back manufacturing, then they arent being used as a negotiation tool because they are meant to stay rather than be lifted once the other countries acquiesce to his demands.

I disagree here, it's not all or nothing. They could target (if he was smart) certain sectors where it would make sense to bring manufacturing back and at the same time increase his leverage for the upcoming USMCA renegotiation.

Also if they are successful in detering imports to bring manufacturing back, that means they won't be generating revenue from imports. See that's why alot of it makes no sense

I see your point here, but they can target certain sectors where it makes sense to have a stronger domestic presence, while still generating income from other imports.

 

[Intermission]

These are the main tariff theories I've seen, but none of them fully make sense and even the reasons that Trump himself gave are incompatible with each other:


1) To combat Security Risks. It's what he said regarding Fentanyl. Might make sense for Mexico or possibly China, but makes no sense that he's also tariffing countries like Australia or Canada, and he hasn't even stated what specific demands he wants fulfilled to remove the tariffs.

2) To bring back manufacturing to the US. He also gave this as a reason, and if true it would mean what he said about #1 above is not true. But if this is his goal, it makes no sense to use blanket tariffs instead of targeting specific industries, and it doesn't explain why he keeps going back and forth pausing/unpausing the tariffs instead of just laying out his plan.

3) To negotiate better trade deals. This would maybe explain why he keeps going back and forth pausing/unpausing tariffs. It would mean that what he said in #1 #2 & #4 are false but would sort of explain why he stated them (misdirection). This is the one I'd want to be true, but it assumes the most guile out of Trump, and also doesn't make sense because NAFTA is up for review in 2026 anyway, so it would make more sense to just renegotiate during that window. By doing it this way, he seems to be damaging relationships with trading partners and causing mistrust, which is not conductive to free trade.

4) To raise revenue to fund tax cuts. He specifically said tariffs will make the US rich again. This would mean #1, & #3 are false because he's not using the tariffs to negotiate. Also #2 would be false because if manufacturing were truly brought back to the US, then the tariffs wouldn't be generating much revenue as there would be little importing. Tax cuts are the standard Republican MO, but this still doesn't explain why he keeps going back and forth pausing/unpausing etc.

5) To disrupt the US's standing with the rest of the world, strengthen ties with Russia, or cause a stock market crash so that the wealthy can buy up the stocks at discount. Basically Krasnov theory... I don't believe its his true goal, but some of it may end up being unintended consequences. It would explain the erratic back and forth on/off with the tariffs fwiw.


Notice that pretty much all of these theories (except for maybe #5) must be mutually exclusive for them to truly fulfill their stated purpose.

So which one do you think is the true motive behind the tariffs?

Why doesn't it make sense to make blanket tariffs if he wants all of manufacturing to come back?