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

World leaders lining up to ‘kiss my ass’, Donald Trump boasts

President Donald Trump has boasted that world leaders panicked by his gargantuan global tariffs are “kissing my ass-” in desperate bids to reduce the levies.

“These countries are calling us up, kissing my ass**” to negotiate deals on his tariffs, which he called “legendary,” Trump said during a speech at the National Republican Congressional Committee Dinner in Washington, D.C. “They are,” he emphasised.

“They are dying to make a deal.”

He mocked the tariff-deal supplicants, pretending to be them as he pitifully pleaded in a simpering voice: “Please, Sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything, Sir.”

Mr Trump also bragged that he had the “most successful 100 days in the history of this country,” apparently forgetting the rattling plunges in global stock markets after he announced his tariffs, angry Republican town hall meetings, and a major national protest against his administration just days earlier.

For many leaders, the White House hasn’t bothered to respond to their phone calls to even schedule talks, Politico reported Tuesday. In addition, Trump officials haven’t yet even indicated what specific concessions they’re seeking.

None of Mr Trump’s top officials “have a mandate to negotiate,” one foreign diplomat who requested anonymity told Politico.

“I’m not sure … how receptive” the administration is to “ meet with counterparts. Many of us have already written to them asking for meetings,” said an official from the Philippines. “We are all waiting for the reply,” he added, referring to representatives of several Southeast Asian countries.

It’s unclear where the Trump administration stands on the tariffs, whose cost will be largely paid by American consumers in the form of higher prices for foreign goods. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CBS News Tuesday that the tariffs are “negotiable but not a negotiating tactic.”

Mr Trump said that there could be both “permanent tariffs and there could also be negotiations.”

The tariffs went into effect at 12:01 a.m.today. They included a monstrous 104pc levy on goods from China, which has vowed to fight America “to the end” in a trade war.

They have shaken a global trading order that has persisted for decades, raised fears of recession and wiped trillions of dollars off the market value of major firms.

European and U.S. stock futures pointed to more pain ahead, following a grim session for most of Asia. Chinese stocks bucked the trend, however, as state support propped up the ailing market.

Mr Trump has shrugged off the market rout and offered investors mixed signals about whether the tariffs will remain in the long term, describing them as "permanent" but also boasting that they are pressuring other leaders to ask for negotiations.

Mary Papenfuss, UK Independent

Who will tell the USA its meat is substandard ? Why don’t they get the message when their products are refused in any country it is because they are not up to the standards of 2025?

That won't continue to be the case if the voter base back home are pissed off if a recession, depression or banking crisis occurs

So they just wait for it to happen, hoping they don't lose support personally when it does as they'll all go rogue on Trump

One thing I find strange is that the matter of the US trade deficit hasn't been addressed and handled as an objection:

I don't even think that the US does have a real trade deficit.

For instance, foreign investors find the US bond market as well as the US stock market attractive. If they are buying either of these, they are essentially buing a US-american product.

Foreign investment in US stocks and US bonds add fuel to the US consumer, making in the end the US consumer buying more than the country can produce.

So, in order to stop that, Trump would need to make the purchase of US stocks and US bonds for foreign investors as unattractive as possible. I also think that Europeans will never find the Chevrolet Silverado or the Ford F150 as an attractive car to buy, simply too big, simply too much fuel consumption, but they will find US stocks and bonds attractive. Ireland is also the biggest customer of Boeing aircraft outside of the US, mainly due to Ryanair and CapAir.

Tariffs don't do anything here, they only add to inflation and possible economic issues for the US first and foremost.

So if one adds US stocks and bonds, the US probably has no trade deficit with Europe at all.

Just glancing at my pension and is down about 9k since the start of April. So half of its growth in 5 years has disappeared. If I was nearing retirement age and in a US citizen, I'd be very angry.

US and EU trade is balanced when you consider services

And that's what US should care about - they have a knowledge economy that exports high value services with high margins and use the high wages they get as a result to import goods that take menial human effort to produce that they don't want to do themselves either because of how taxing or dangerous it is (or scarce: coffee, diamonds etc)

US has seen a huge net gain from global trade - it's just that the current administration willfully or mistakenly misunderstand that. No prizes for guessing which.

The big winner from all of this to me seems to be Russia for some reason

There will be many in-depth analyses of the precarious economic situation that wide-ranging tariffs put the USA in, but economics are really about people at the end of the day and people aren't always rational, reasonable or do what's in their best interests.

Like, we can be reasonably sure that MAGA will blame Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden and Barack Obama for any heavy economic fallout that might occur and that fire will be fanned by all the right-wing 'news' networks, plus Facebook and Twitter. The centre people might show up for a big one day protest and then go home. The more left wing people will be doing the 'I told you so' thing and not much more.

If bad tariff policies were to be the end of Trump, it'd require some kind of fight to get rid of him because he wouldn't go without one. More specifically, the people behind him wouldn't go without one. They know it's their one great opportunity to make the USA into the dictatorship they want.

He was banging on about clawing back money from the EU for all the raping and pillaging they've done on America, maybe it a precursor to a partial default as it's only money the US is owed anyway

That's the thing when he talks about how they have so many European and Japanese cars in the US, but we won't take their cars.

Yeah, because most American cars are a) too big for European and Japanese roads, cities, parking spaces etc, b) don't meet our emissions restrictions, and c) because they're bigger they have far worse fuel economy.

Now a lot of the above is due to the amount of driving they have to do in much of America due to worse public transport, cities/towns being further apart and so their cars need greater comfort levels and are bigger. But there's no demand for their cars over here (or in Japan) because they simply don't suit our driving/roads, and also we have an abundance of our own cars which more than meet our needs.

But no. Trump has to burn down everyone's economy because we're not buying their cars that we likely won't be able to f*cking use anyway. It's supply and demand. There's no supply of US cars required over here, because there's no demand for them.

Ford don't even make cars for the US market anymore!

I think Suzuki specifically pulled out of the US because they knew it was futile developing SUVs for just one market when it made more sense to concentrate on being the biggest small car maker in the world and dominate markets with huge growth potential like India.

US truck makers are also going to lose what international markets they do have in Mexico and Canada as the likes of BYD Shark take over.

Trump promised to get rid of capital gains tax

… he got rid of capital gains

I’m looking forward to him getting rid of income tax … by getting rid of incomes

MAGA is an ideology which is difficult to understand for anybody with an education. It will only make America weaker.

MAGA is as dumb as the Nazi ideology was, only it doesn't kill so many people. It only destroys the economy.

Think of how many US Americans invested their pension on the stock market. That's not amusing for them.

Think of the fact that Ireland is Boeing's biggest customer outside of America. Only a prosperous Ireland with a low taxation economy can be that kind of customer. It's always two ways.

Won't opening my degiro account for a while, gambling is a mugs game! Prize bonds or the credit union from now on.

I honestly struggle to answer this because of how many factors are at play right now and how unprecedented, and at times irrational, some of the factors are

In general terms, higher bond yields means higher borrowing costs over the long term for everyone. So without the fed doing anything to the short term interest rates, you'll see interest rates rise anyway and it has a downward impact on inflation.

But the usual time that happens is because less money is invested in bonds because a healthy bull market means you want less in bonds and more in equities. Then when equities go down, you take out your money and throw into bonds as a safe haven, dropping yields again. Here we're seeing higher bond yields because of a loss of confidence in US debt - that's not good - especially when inflation is likely to start growing more because of the tariffs

Trump is pressuring the Fed to cut rates, but I can't see them doing that. If the currency has a more dangerous devaluation spike they will surely have to look at raising them

But the kicker here is the current volatility and unpredictability of what will actually happen because you have:

1. US Tariffs kicking in - sweeping and mostly indiscriminate - but most worryingly, nobody knows if they are temporary and removed imminently after negotiation, permanent and long lasting, or likely to increase further

2. Threat of retaliatory action from tariffed countries

3. A stock market trying to act rationally given the uncertainty of #1 and #2 above - which is basically impossible

So I think the only thing the Fed can do right now on interest rates is………wait. I can't see a case for acting quickly with so much flux, unless there's a serious threat on the currency or bond side - and likely I think the first action will be for the Fed to buy bonds in a staggering amount, I think this could start happening really soon