Smart Trumpers are the worst of the bunch. Continuously inventing PHD 5D chess rationalizations for his actions that he immediately invalidates with his next erratic action. Better to just be along for the vibes than to pretend its a strategic, well thought out, well executed plan.
That's not the simplest possible explanation. The simplest explanation is that he did this because he believes in it. Trump has been saying the exact same thing about tariffs since the 1980s—there's video of him talking to Larry King about it in 1987, using exactly the same phrasing and logic that he uses today.
Donald Trump fundamentally believes that everything in life is a zero-sum game, and moreover that everyone is as crooked as him: either you're screwing someone else or you're getting screwed. That's why he's so obsessed with trade deficits specifically, because to him, that negative sign screams "you're getting ripped off."
There are other benefits. By imposing the tariffs like this and wielding them through executive power, he can extort countries and corporations to give him what he wants in exchanging for releasing the hostages, so to speak. And I'm sure people in his orbit _also_ used this as a get-rich-quick scheme, because these people are all grifters. But that is all secondary to the fact that he has believed this for forty years and finally got a chance to do it.
He tried to, but his advisors stopped him. Bob Woodward reported that Gary Cohn snatched papers off his desk on multiple different occasions to stop him from starting trade wars at the beginning of his first term.
This time around he has made sure there are no advisors strong enough to stop him. That means he is far more dangerous now than he was in the first term. And not just in the area of the economy.
I usually dismiss conspiracy theories, but if this were a dump and pump, it would be surprisingly clever. 3 hours before he announced easing tariffs, Trump tweeted that it's a good time to buy stocks. If he gave someone insider information, they could use that tweet as a cover.
> 3 hours before he announced easing tariffs, Trump tweeted that it's a good time to buy stocks. If he gave someone insider information, they could use that tweet as a cover.
Got a link to the tweet? I don't have a Twitter account.
Edit: apparently it is true, and it is on Truth social. Someone sent me a screenshot.
To the downvoters: what is wrong with you? It was an honest question.
If you're gonna use historical analogies, it pays off to be accurate. Marie Antoinette very likely never said "let them eat cake" and she wasn't particularly more detached than aristocrats at the time were generally (which, to be fair, is quite a lot, but not all aristocrats were killed in the revolution).
Marie Antoinette was not killed because she was particularly detached but for treason after plotting against the Constitutional monarchy of 1791 along with Louis XVI and many aristocrats at the time.
wow, fuck. unbelievable crap, but true, nonetheless:
after implying I should be accurate, you go on to make your own statements using weasel words like "very likely never said" and "wasn't particularly more detached" and more on the same lines in the rest of your comment. where is the proof for your weasel words, bro, just like you ask me to be accurate?
weasel words are not accurate words, bro, rather almost the opposite.
”physician, heal thyself” - before you fuck around advising other people what to do or not do.
i see a lot of trends of this on hn too. pathetic.
here is a similar excerpt from your same comment above, with different highlighting by me, which shows even better, your "weaselness" (for lack of a better word - maybe weaselishness or weasel(ish) nature? ):
>wasn't particularly more detached than aristocrats at the time were generally (which, to be fair, is quite a lot, but not all
laughable comment.
iow, what is evident to someone who sees beyond the surface meaning of the words you used, like I can, is that you want to attack someone verbally, without being held responsible for the consequences of your attack. in other words, you are a weakling and a coward.
that is why you waffle or equivocate.
and that is true of a lot of people, not just here but in the world. i have seen enough over my lifetime to know that that is the case.
for a very relevant and important current example, check out the news about the SignalGate scandal involving the topmost echelons of the US govt., how they fucked up, made a fool of themselves in front of the whole world, and then tried, unsuccessfully, like you, to cover it up.
jokers, and beggars, all such people.
update: wow, fuck, again.
proof. some time after writing this comment, on a whim, I thought of googling for the term signalgate, and what was my surprise, to see this Wikipedia page:
It just goes to show the notability of it, because Wikipedia only allows what they consider notable pages (according to their criteria, of course). iow, the topic is considered important by them.
It’s scary to think that the reality is as simple as “Trump is just an idiot that is incapable of understanding even the fundamentals of global trade and has been obsessed with what he thinks tariffs are for 30+ years and is too stubborn to listen to non-stupid people”, while the rest is just hopeless attempts to rationalize his stupidity. But when you’re in a billionaire bubble isolated from reality, and a dumb grifter who rips off every party in every deal you’ve ever done, it makes sense to assume that global trade is just countries ripping each-other off.
The people around him with zipped mouths who know better could very well be treating it as a pump and dump however.
Not clever, or justified, or well though out, or based on any solid evidence. But there's probably a rationale behind it.
Now, ideally, we shouldn't have to care what the rationale was if there was any way of just getting back to "normal", but the same way Mao wasn't a flash in the pan, I assume we're looking at a few decades of it for the US as well.
