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

Why not?

Are the 12 days McGregor gave the Govt up yet?

Apparently the tariff calculation was done entirely by AI.

Great days work Mr Trump, truely The art of the Deal :D … still say EU etc should just sit back and watch the carnage, do nothing, dont retaliate .. yet

$2 trillion dollars wiped off the US stock market

If it would harm EU companies more I don't see a point in pulling investments out of the US.

Fair enough. It's also unlikely to affect Ornua by much either though for the same reasons as my above point

The more this goes on the more it feels like Brexit alright. The misled voters with promises of a new shiny city on the hill. The morons promising better times with absolutely no credible plan. Blow it up and wait for the world to crawl back and give everything the US wants. The lack of understanding of trade, the exceptionalism. it's uncanny.

washed on BBC 2 Newsnight last night and a Trump advisor - a Mr. Gupta - being interviewed by Victoria Derbyshire. Well worth a watch. It was a MASTER CLASS in bullying, obstrufacation, deflection, etc, etc, etc, etc. VD did not know where to turn to . The only thing she could have done was when she was reporting on Maine University saying that the terrified will do a lot of damage to the US economy. He retorted with. ‘ Is that the university that did A, B and C and therefor has no credibility. The A, B and C points were on social issues and had ABSOLUTLY nothing to do with economics but he chose to link the lot together.

What an arrogant B——-d.

Yep all tick boxes for right wing Tories and Farage and Co.

Wonder how much of these tariffs are intentionally self inflicted to burn the us economy so the elites can buy up property, corporations and assets in general at a much cheaper price. Similar to what happened in russia after the fall of the USSR and failed capitalism shock treatment, were an exclusive group of oligarchs ended up siezing much of the wealth in the country to themselves.

Laura Loomer is back in the Trump White House as a mover and shaker. She did some "research" on the trustworthiness of some of Trump NSC members and presented the research to Trump in the Oval Office. Some of Trumps senior people, Vice President JD Vance, chief of staff Susie Wiles, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Serio Gor, the director of the Presidential Personnel Office, took part in the meeting.

After the meeting, Trump acted on Loomer's research and fired at least three of his NSC team. NSC spokesperson, Brian Hughes, declined to comment on the matter, claiming the White House does not discuss personnel matters. Presumably this meeting and the firings happened before the tariffs decisions announcement.

Alan Dukes had an Irish TImes letter in the last couple of weeks arguing that maybe the EU should not retaliate. This makes perfect economic sense. Tariffs are a loose-loose move Trump hurts the US economy as well as the rest of the world. Similarly, EU tariffs might hurt the US, but will also hurt the EU. So let them stew in their own juice and let retailiation take the form of making sure everone knows what an idiot Trump is.

Brian Walsh, Thomas Boodry and David Feith

Never heard of any of em

I think it could be the route to go. Trump's a brinksman. He also loves the chaos and news cycle. If we shoot our load early then it's just a death spiral with a maniac.

It's not done from a position of weakness.

More a position of common sense.

Yeah a quiet pivot away from everything American by the EU is far more damaging to te US than giving Trump what he wants which is headline grabbing reciprocal tarrifs.

Same as before then mostly.

Soybeans, Bourbon/Whiskey, Motorcycles, Cheese, Peanuts, Cotton, Tobacco, Boeing

These products are tied to specific regions (Midwest, Southeast, Rust Belt) with political clout, where economic disruption could sway voters or pressure GOP. The 2018 EU retaliatory tariffs on bourbon and Harleys, in response to U.S. steel tariffs, demonstrated this strategy’s success—exports dropped sharply, and U.S. producers lobbied for relief. Plus, hopefully more Europeans would buy Irish whiskey.