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

Trump's talking head acolytes on Fox etc seem to flip-flop regularly between it meaning more jobs for American citizens, and then when pushed about how that will drive up costs, start saying most of the manufacturing will be automated and robots.

And yet, setting up new manufacturing plants with specific automated processes to carry out the manufacturing would take years and a huge investment, during which time those companies would still have to keep their existing manufacturing in a country being tariffed, which will then cut into their costs and reduce the capital they have for investing in new manufacturing plants in America.

So what's the solution? Those companies bend the knee enough to Trump to get exemptions from tariffs contingent on huge investment in America and probably greasing the palms of Trump & his buddies for the privilege. Because ultimately, that's what all Trump's plans boil down to; something he can publicly point to as a win, something he can privately enrich himself with as the actual win.

How many times has Musk done or said something which caused stock prices in his companies to shift dramatically, and which he then financially benefits from? The issue is he gets investigated by the SEC, warned, and given a fine which is less than how much he had just profited by.

"If the penalty for a crime is a fine, then that law only exists for the lower class."

EU pausing tariff countermeasures for 90 days

published at 11:35

11:35

Breaking

The European Union says it is pausing its countermeasures on President Trump's tariffs for 90 days.

In a statement, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says that the EU wants "to give negotiations a chance" after Trump announced yesterday that there would be a 90 day pause for nations hit by higher US import tariffs.

Next 4 years

Meanwhile I see it was the Japanese as well who started it sell US bonds (they hold double of China)

Hopefully whoever is in charge of the Irish 330bn invested in US starts diversification promptly especially to Europe

It's to appeal to the "my pappy was a miner and his granpappy was miner and his granpappy was a miner" mentality spouted by people who have never been down a mine.

It's the same as the clowns from Yorkshire and Nord Pas de Calais who lap up the shte from Farage and Le Pen.

Under the law, members of congress are obliged to disclose any stock transactions (over $1,000) within 45 days of the trade and report these transactions publicly, making them accessible for scrutiny.

The issue with Nancy Pelosi is it's not her who's making the stock transactions, it's her husband. Spouse trades are not automatically assumed to be influenced by the member’s position even though the stock transactions > $1,000 made by them has to be reported also. There's a number of highly suspicious trades, very coincidental in timing, where Paul Pelosi made a lot of money very quickly!

What's even more interesting is unlike congress members, the president does NOT have to disclose stock transactions exceeding $1,000 within 45 days!

Considering he was completely unaware of the EU tariffs announced I'd assume Trump himself isn't involved in any decision making with market manipulation. The people surrounding him are most likely manipulating him, we know this from his first term. Basically once he was convinced to walk back the tariffs everyone in the loop got the buys in, same with when he announced the tariffs initially where shorts were taken.

The minimum wage in California is $16.50 an hour. The minimum wage in Mexico is  $13.75 USD a day.

If they want Californians to sew suits and t-shirts, the labour costs are going to go up by a factor of about 8.

I think it's safe to say, none of this has been properly thought out.

Exhibit A:

Two people standing in the oval office yesterday who made $2.5 billion and $900 million in one day….yesterday

They, and all other elected officials, their staff and family members, should be prohibitied from trading, not "obliged to disclose".

So was the previous rumour the other day, just to test the market reaction so those in the know, can gauge the reaction?

You make your comments as if they're a matter of fact. I have no idea what's happening but I have ideas what could happen. Ultimately I'll just analyse the outcome and move on with my life.

But it's a tariff on his own citizens, they will still have to import goods that can't produce , but pay more,I don't see anyone fooled other than Americans.

The president only has tariff powers to respond to an emergency. The fact that he paused them for 90 days clearly illustrates there is no emergency. This would matter if congress actually did its job and hold the president to account - the checks and balances that are fundamental to the American government. It's pathetic that these GOP members of congress all claim to be patriotic and proud Americans yet they fail to do one of their core duties of being part of the American congress.

Likewise with GOP representatives tweeting how great it is that people are being deported without due process despite that being undeniably un-American as per the American constitution.

They are all corrupt charlatans and hopefully their legacies will be in tatters when future history books are written.

They did back down. Just because they didn't fully back down doesn't mean they didn't back down.

If you reverse only half way up a road you still reversed.