Donald Trump the Megathread part II - mod warnings in OP, Updated 18/03/25

No he didnt.

Lutnick said these tariffs would not be imposed if Canada and Mexico improved border security.

Lutnick said Trump's Saturday deadline for imposing 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico was meant to pressure the two countries to stop the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. The threatened duties are separate from the broad review of U.S. tariffs, trade deals and other trade policy ordered by Trump when he took office last week."So this is a separate tariff to create action from Mexico and action from Canada," Lutnick said of the 25% duty threat. "And as far as I know, they are acting swiftly, and if they execute it, there will be no tariff."

Mexico and Canada agreed to what they were asked, its mostly window dressing mind you its doubtful if it will be effective.

Id prefer Trump to be more diplomatic and patient, Canada is a good neighbour of the US, it deserves to be treated better.

The flip side being that the trans issue played a big part in the Democrats not winning the election. Mostly around men in womens sports as highlighted by Riley Gaines throughout the election campaigns. Families feeling venerable & uncomfortable about what Ms Gaines highlighted. Then there was the "Trump is for You" TV advert (which helped) to swing it away from Harris-Biden in the closing stages …..

The Democrats were not listening to the public mood on this issue.

No he has not?

He has used the threat to get what he wants?

I agree that his negotiation methods are old fashioned” I win- You lose” approach - very outdated - what hoping for is that these announcements are simply opening gambits - a way to get attention and to send a message that “America means business” - that’s all fine - if it ends up that America suffers more than rest of world then no, that will backfire - but we’re not quite there yet is my point.

What I’m hoping EU will do is keep a clear head - they have plenty of negotiating power as a group and Trump knows that - it’s Trumps way of getting people to the table - that’s fine - but as we’ve already seen, his threats don’t mean they will be carried out - Trump would be a fool to carry out some of the tariffs he’s threatened - all im saying is “let’s see”-some commentators here on this thread are getting worked up as usual every time he opens his mouth - he has 4 years to go as president - I wouldn’t be taking things he says too literally - he’s playing to his home crowd half the time

On the most basic level…

The US $36.22 trillion in debt. A population of 335 million. That's $108,119 per person.

Ireland is €225 billion in debt. A population heading for 5.3 million. That's €42,264 per person.

Now that is if everything was just based on debt per head of population, it doesn't take into account anything else, just debt per head of population. They owe, per head, roughly two and a half times what the average Irish person owes. And we're fu*ked because of it.

That growth in debt can't be sustainable. So I can see why Trump is willing to torch deals and willing to inflict damage on countries to try and get America in a stronger bargaining position.

But a trade war, and gun-boat diplomacy, just won't do that. Torching economic pacts and deals won't do that. Neither will trickle-down economics. All quite the opposite in fact.

As for his and Musk plan to dissolve the Federal government departments and returning everything to the state governments, well that will backfire economically too. Instead of having one Federal government overseeing everything, you'll have 50 individual states competing with each other. Inevitably, some of them, likely the red states, will be battered economically.

There's also the Canada problem. Canada exports huge amounts of gas and oil to the US. Since the war in Ukraine, Europe needs gas and oil form somewhere. If Trump comes after Canada, you'd imagine it won't take too long before the Canadians and Europeans make a deal to provide stability for both sides. If they manage to send what they export to the US elsewhere, not only will it secure Canada economically, it'll cut down oil and gas coming into the US, and drive up prices there.

Highly limited as I am in terms of understanding economics, I'm struggling to see how his trade and restructuring policies, so far anyway, are going to benefit America, or the average American, going forward.

I dont think I have ever encountered such nonsense as that document. It say absolutely nothing based on anything other than ranting incoherently.

how much of a difference is there between what Canada committed to do in December and what they committed to do yesterday?

This must be post number 1,000,000 on this site where someone confidently posits that sovereign debt is a bad thing by definition. As long as the economy is growing faster that the debt is is not a problem, no matter how large it is.

Starting a multi-lateral trade war is not an advisable strategy for ensuring continued economic growth

Massive short term cuts in government spending is not an advisable strategy for ensuring continued economic growth

Pissing off the countries that hold your debt is not an advisable strategy when instigating policies that restrict economic growth

Canadians. "Boo....Sorry, eh"

CNN

I thought this was a very balanced review of what went wrong (for Biden-Harris). Lots of Fox news items too, but they're not so neutral.

The republicans shout and rant about a handful of cases of trans people being allowed in women's sport. Amplify it repeatedly into a massive issue and then claim "its the Dems blah blah blah". Meanwhile the democrats focused on actual issues. Maybe or maybe not the right issues, but actual issues. Their mistake was thinking that the issues that were important were the ones that impact the most people and not the ones that attract the most attention

Whilst the transgender issue didn't "lose" the election for Harris as such, it was most certainly an election issue. The Republicans spent considerable amount of money with anti trans attack ads. They wouldn't have washed money on it if they didn't believe it would make gains for them.

And once again I'm not endorsing any of their rhetoric but to deny it was an issue is burying heads in the sand.

CNN, not FOX.

Not proof of anything, but listen & learn . . . .

It's not a Megan Kelly rant, or a Fox News Pro Trump debate, it's a level headed discussion on CNN. Not sure it's a linkdump?

Only real conversation Trump wants to have is how to make himself and his family richer without paying tax, reckon he is clueless on crypto currenct but sees only the benefits, Trump Inc., is borrowed up to the hilt with little or no equity, Merde Del Lardo is a country club and he is the principal guest.