Second ('Third') Trump Presidency Thread
- Thread starter thethe
- Start date
nsacpi
Expects Yuge Games
Some of the president’s top aides saw an opening.
Throughout April, President Donald Trump’s sky-high tariffs on imports from China had rippled through the U.S. and global economies. But the president was reluctant to move too quickly to lower the penalties on Beijing, believing that the United States needed to stomach some short-term economic pain to achieve a major rebalancing in trade and that China had more to lose in the standoff.
By the end of the month, though, a growing number of blue-collar workers whom Trump saw as part of his political base — including longshoremen and truckers — began warning that tariffs and a near-total cessation of trade with China were hurting them. Behind the scenes, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other aides told Trump that his own voters were in danger if the tariffs did not come down, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions. That gave them a path to initiating negotiations with the Chinese, which culminated this past weekend in Geneva with a partial deal to reduce tariffs between the world’s two biggest economies. One White House official cautioned, however, that multiple factors contributed to the trade talks in Switzerland.
“The key argument was that this was beginning to hurt Trump’s supporters — Trump’s people,” one person briefed on the talks said. “It gave Susie a key window.”
The concessions of the past two weeks may obscure just how much Trump has altered U.S. economic relations with other countries.
Even after easing economic hostilities with China, Trump has raised the average U.S. tariff rate from 2.5 percent to 18 percent — the highest level since the Smoot-Hawley tariff rate of the 1930s that most economists think exacerbated the Great Depression, according to the Budget Lab at Yale University. Trump has long maintained that these higher tariffs will provide an incentive for companies to onshore and help pay for the GOP tax bill.
But some critics say these policies are unlikely to achieve that result. A high tariff rate could in theory provide an incentive for manufacturers to move production to the U.S., but the administration’s constant reversals of policy gives businesses little confidence that they won’t be undercut later. That undermines the goal of encouraging companies to invest heavily in new U.S. facilities.
“It’s been completely insane,” said Michael Strain, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank, of Trump’s tariff policies. “When I step back from the euphoria over easing tariffs with China, what I see is the tariff rate is five times as high as when Trump took office. And we seem to have gotten nothing out of it at all.”
Throughout April, President Donald Trump’s sky-high tariffs on imports from China had rippled through the U.S. and global economies. But the president was reluctant to move too quickly to lower the penalties on Beijing, believing that the United States needed to stomach some short-term economic pain to achieve a major rebalancing in trade and that China had more to lose in the standoff.
By the end of the month, though, a growing number of blue-collar workers whom Trump saw as part of his political base — including longshoremen and truckers — began warning that tariffs and a near-total cessation of trade with China were hurting them. Behind the scenes, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other aides told Trump that his own voters were in danger if the tariffs did not come down, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions. That gave them a path to initiating negotiations with the Chinese, which culminated this past weekend in Geneva with a partial deal to reduce tariffs between the world’s two biggest economies. One White House official cautioned, however, that multiple factors contributed to the trade talks in Switzerland.
“The key argument was that this was beginning to hurt Trump’s supporters — Trump’s people,” one person briefed on the talks said. “It gave Susie a key window.”
The concessions of the past two weeks may obscure just how much Trump has altered U.S. economic relations with other countries.
Even after easing economic hostilities with China, Trump has raised the average U.S. tariff rate from 2.5 percent to 18 percent — the highest level since the Smoot-Hawley tariff rate of the 1930s that most economists think exacerbated the Great Depression, according to the Budget Lab at Yale University. Trump has long maintained that these higher tariffs will provide an incentive for companies to onshore and help pay for the GOP tax bill.
But some critics say these policies are unlikely to achieve that result. A high tariff rate could in theory provide an incentive for manufacturers to move production to the U.S., but the administration’s constant reversals of policy gives businesses little confidence that they won’t be undercut later. That undermines the goal of encouraging companies to invest heavily in new U.S. facilities.
“It’s been completely insane,” said Michael Strain, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank, of Trump’s tariff policies. “When I step back from the euphoria over easing tariffs with China, what I see is the tariff rate is five times as high as when Trump took office. And we seem to have gotten nothing out of it at all.”
sturg33
I
But can you please tell us what we got from China in the 90- day deal?
What would even happen if Chauvin were pardoned? Wouldn’t he still be in prison for 20 years nonetheless for his state charges?
Also, please for the love of god people, don’t protest over a goddamn pardon, particularly when it doesn’t really *do* anything. Protest the fact that we give Presidents the ability to do it in the first place, particularly in the free-for-all way we do, but life will absolutely go on with no issues if Trump pardons Chauvin.
When it comes to the HHS cuts, I’m constantly flabbergasted by just how brazenly they have lied about them. Like the staffing and programs that are being cut aren’t state secrets, we know for a fact that “DEI” isn’t actually taking up that much of the NIH budget. If you want to cut medical research, just man the fuck up and admit it.
But also, the people doing medicine in America probably do need to pay more attention to diversity than our Chinese counterparts, because there’s a much less homogenous population here, which might require research into why one group might have a higher predisposition for certain things medically than others. I have no doubts that some money was going toward truly “woke” stuff, but this is a much different arena with a lot of complexity.
zitothebrave
Connoisseur of Minors
Kitchens Close to Avoid ICE at Steve Smith’s Broadway Bars
Downtown kitchens shuttered over the weekend to avoid immigration agents in at least three locations owned by conservative restaurateur Steve Smith.
Kitchens Close to Avoid ICE at Steve Smith’s Broadway Bars
Downtown kitchens shuttered over the weekend to avoid immigration agents in at least three locations owned by conservative restaurateur Steve Smith.www.nashvillescene.com
Wealthy businessman taking advantage of illegal migration suffers when majority of country decides that illegal migration is bad for us.
Are we supposed to feel bad?
People like Cenk will never vote for people like Trump but it serves as a proxy as to what moderates/independentsare thinking.
Mid-Terms are going to be good for Republicans as long as they understand where the country is in this moment right now. Probably not big gains because its challenging for controlling party to do so in a mid term but it will buck the trend people expect to see.
