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

I think it's simpler than that. I'm quite sure that somebody has explained correctly what tariffs might mean for the American and global economies. However, he's so dumb and narcissistic that he is literally incapable of taking advice from anyone. He literally has his own idea and nothing will come in the way of that, not even logic and sense. He's said several times that he's his own best counsellor, so I doubt if he even has an agenda. He just wants to try to prove himself right in the face of pretty much every reputable economist out there. Time will tell as to how its going to turn out. I suspect - not well.

The EU won't like giving up their title.

Mod Edit: Warned for trolling

Trump tariffs to be 10pc, 15pc or 20pc depending on country and industry - Sky News
A source close to the White House has told Sky News there will three separate bands of tariffs - 10pc, 15pc, and 20pc.
The bands will differ both by country and by industry, Sky news reported.

he loves only himself

Not how the EU works but keep believing that brexit bus is gonna come run us over.

This was said multiple times in thread last night and dismissed as Brexit level scare mongering. We will see what comes but we will quickly see who our EU friends are if it is different rates per country targeting each countries specific specialist industry at different rates.

I predicted Musk would get gone by summer but should have said within 100 days. His goose was cooked early on when he was getting more attention than Trump.

Trump looking out for the working class?

Nope.

NY Times reporting:

The Trump administration has abruptly laid off the entire staff running a $4.1 billion program to help low-income households across the United States pay their heating and cooling bills.

The firings threaten to paralyze the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which was created by Congress in 1981 and helps to offset high utility bills for roughly 6.2 million people from Maine to Texas during frigid winters and hot summers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/climate/trump-layoffs-energy-assistance-liheap.html?smid=url-share

No what was dismissed was the belief that the EU would turn on itself. This was peddaled during Brexit. It failed to materialise and now we have the same theory being peddaled.

Maga and Brexit are very similar ideologies and while I acknowledge the US has way more leverage than the UK did. Id still firmly believe the EU will act as one similar to how it acted for Brexit.

If it doesn't it would be the end of the union.

The belief in the 'leader of the free world' trope and that all should kneel to them will be their downfall. These tariffs will be baked in to daily life. Trade deals will happen between the others that will reduce as much dependency on the USA as possible. The EU is big enough that it can hurt the US economy. There will be no winners, and this will be meekly declared a victory at some point by Trump et al. after all the damage is done. Fool me once comes to mind.

If the EU goes in heavy on US tech companies, which looks likely, some would consider that as the EU deprioritising Ireland.

Our news media is streets ahead of what passes for news over in the states. The big news networks in the states aren't even pretending to be even-handed anymore, and fall firmly into one camp or the other politically. They don't read the news. All they have is 24 hours of punditry and editorial comment, bashing the other side, and it's gotten even worse in the age of social media because whatever is being peddled on those sites is the new low bar the news networks have to limbo under in order to keep their audience watching. Nothing is more important to them than ratings and profit, and they'll say anything short of whatever gets them sued, but they've learned how to better toe that line, while nodding and winking, since 2020 where Fox got done for hundreds of millions of dollars on fraudulent election claims. You look at some of their dead-eyed anchors and think that they'd plunge the US into another civil war if they thought it might get them the primetime weekday slot.

Oh come, never interrupt a rival when they are harming themselves.

It makes most sense to simply tariff what suits us.

Part of the problem is that Trump has no businesses that you could tariff. He has no loyalty for anyone else and won't care if state are targeted. It is all about him. You need to find a way that would directly affect him, which is tough. McDonalds maybe?

It easy to police, on export declaration forms you need to enter the tariff code, value and country of origin. I'd assume with pharma, like meat produce there's probably stricter rules like factory they were produced/slaughtered etc...