President Trump: Making America Great Again...

[BlueK]

So Trump says three automakers get an exemption from the tariffs for one month. Everything else still in place and the call wirh Trudeau this morning wasn't enough. He clearly really really wants tariffs regardless of what anyone around him is trying to do, it's not just a negotiating tactic.

prices for agricultural goods because they are perishable will most likely go up pretty much immediately, is my understanding.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/05/busin...sed/index.html

[Maximus]

so were actively preventing ukraine from using weapons we already gave them?

vance might be the root of everything bad foreign policy trump does

his critique fuels much of the hostility that Vance’s allies feel toward Ukraine. In the eyes of conservatives like Vance, Zelenskyy has become a totem of all the foreign nations that have benefitted from the protection and largesse of the U.S.-led postwar order — which is to say, all the people who, in Vance’s mind, have benefited from the slow destruction of his own community.

how does a senator believe something so dumb?

https://www.politico.com/news/magazi...nskyy-00211618

[Shaka]

Generally, I agree (and strongly agree that Trump's tariffs are really stupid), but occasionally targeted tariffs make sense.One example--although the U.S. has laws (not always vigorously enforced, to be sure) against predatory pricing, loss leaders, monopolies, etc., foreign competitors may not have similar restraints so the U.S. may impose tariffs to offset trade practices that would be unlawful here, Such tariffs should be employed with precision and careful analysis, skill sets foreign to Trump.

Reagan did it to the Japanese. Short term pain but ultimately helped lead them to creating manufacturing facilities in the USA.

[USUC]

Reagan did it to the Japanese. Short term pain but ultimately helped lead them to creating manufacturing facilities in the USA.

Reagan had clearly defined objectives and tariffs were targeted. Trump doesn't. It's fentynal one moment (which is nonsense), illegal border crossings, then because of protectionism, but then because it'll raise more money, etc. According to these countries, Trump isn't even being consistent with what he wants from them. His team contradicts themselves all the time because Trump is all over the place. It's all vibes.

I am only for limited tarrifs and only in egregious cases. I could understand if tarrifs were in kind and proportionate to what is imposed on us. But he's not even doing that. I haven't seen a shred of evidence that there is agrand strategy other than his seeming inability to grasp what tarrifs are and his love to punish what he sees as not being deferential enough to him personally. I'm open to there being some coherent plan, but people saying just trust him don't assuage my concerns.

[Maximus]

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[Northwestcoug]

LOL, another delay on tariffs. As if one month for car manufacturers is enough time to bring all those jobs back.

And how tone deaf do you have to be to delay tariffs on new cars but keep them rolling for things like agriculture?

[frank ryan]

It's a good thing Trump is not at the age where he faces cognitive decline and could be taken advantage by scammers like Musk and Vance.

[BlueK]

How touching, the Republicans in Congress are asking Elon Musk for "permission" to vote on his government slashing.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/03/05/p...ge-republicans

[frank ryan]

How touching, the Republicans in Congress are asking Elon Musk for "permission" to vote on his government slashing.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/03/05/p...ge-republicans

In MAGA speak they are "cucks."

[Shaka]

LOL, another delay on tariffs. As if one month for car manufacturers is enough time to bring all those jobs back.

And how tone deaf do you have to be to delay tariffs on new cars but keep them rolling for things like agriculture?

Because the tariffs are mostly threats. I have a friend in Windsor Ontario. Every American car manufacturer and a couple of Japanese companies, have plants in Ontario near Detroit. There are also several other companies that make car parts in Ontario. I'm confident this is the area where parts, and car assemblies, criss cross the border multiple times.

A delay on the automotive tariff puts Canada on notice that unless they come to the table and negotiate the car manufacturers are going to start making the cars and parts solely in the USA leaving Windsor an even bigger craphole than it already is. Canada is not in a power position in this trade war. I'm reasonably sure that they end up negotiating an agreement that is more favorable to the USA.

[Maximus]

what was wrong with the agreement trump signed with them 4 years ago?

[BlueK]

Because the tariffs are mostly threats. I have a friend in Windsor Ontario. Every American car manufacturer and a couple of Japanese companies, have plants in Ontario near Detroit. There are also several other companies that make car parts in Ontario. I'm confident this is the area where parts, and car assemblies, criss cross the border multiple times.

A delay on the automotive tariff puts Canada on notice that unless they come to the table and negotiate the car manufacturers are going to start making the cars and parts solely in the USA leaving Windsor an even bigger craphole than it already is. Canada is not in a power position in this trade war. I'm reasonably sure that they end up negotiating an agreement that is more favorable to the USA.

The tariffs on everything except cars are still in place. So not mostly threats.

Also the manufacturers are doing it how they are now because it is efficient and at the lowest cost for all concerned. That's what free trade does. Forcing aspects of the process to change now is unlikely to make it better. Keep in mind that Trump gave an extension on cars not because of what Canada said but because the automakers who have operations on both sides don't want this.

[BlueK]

what was wrong with the agreement trump signed with them 4 years ago?

Trump should know. It was more like 5 years ago when he was president and called it the greatest trade agreement ever designed in human history, or something like that.

[Northwestcoug]

Because the tariffs are mostly threats. I have a friend in Windsor Ontario. Every American car manufacturer and a couple of Japanese companies, have plants in Ontario near Detroit. There are also several other companies that make car parts in Ontario. I'm confident this is the area where parts, and car assemblies, criss cross the border multiple times.

A delay on the automotive tariff puts Canada on notice that unless they come to the table and negotiate the car manufacturers are going to start making the cars and parts solely in the USA leaving Windsor an even bigger craphole than it already is. Canada is not in a power position in this trade war. I'm reasonably sure that they end up negotiating an agreement that is more favorable to the USA.

Even if the US needed to improve their auto trade position and tariffs were the best way to go about it, which option would be the best way to introduce a skeptical nation to the inevitable automobile price increase?

Option 1: Lay out your vision for an enhanced manufacturing sector in clear concise terms. Make the case that tariffs are a temporary solution to allow for US car companies to divest themselves of the foreign plants. Give them a few years and tax subsidies to move their production back in the country. Continually make the case to the American public that the increased auto prices are necessary to help the blue collar worker. Stay extremely focused on this message, and eschew bullshit lines about tariffs being an answer to solve the fentanyl crisis.

Option 2:Threaten tariffs, then back off at the last moment, threaten them again, then modify them for another month. Do this and watch the stock markets shed trillions worldwide. Watch as companies and whole countries alike back off on future investment strategies based on the whims of a mercurial president, losing more billions of potential investment. Offer bullshit lines like the countries aren't doing 'enough' to solve the fentanyl crisis, but also it's being done because trade partners are 'ripping off' the US. Make sure you renegotiate NAFTA during your first term that the member countries agreed to and was in place during the last few years for good measure.

[wally]

I'll bet that the Dems already have articles of impeachment ready just in case they retake the house in 2 years. I am really curious if they already have the grounds for impeachment sorted out or if they are waiting for something to come up. They have to already have something, but if Trump does something else that carries more gravitas they will just add it to the top of the list.

I decided over a year ago that I was going to do my best to just enjoy watchin people on both sides of the aisle lose their minds for this presidential cycle. I knew that if I got sucked into either hating everything that Trump did/does or into defending everything he did/does I would just get exhausted and probably have a heart attack. Sitting back and just enjoying the show is pretty okay.

Jon Stewart made a point on one of his recent monologues that others have been saying for some time: that if Media continue freaking out about EVERYTHING TRUMP DOES then the masses of reasonable-minded people that might constitute a majority and get up in arms if Trump does something truly egregious, are just going to tune them out like the boy who cried wolf. This is my prediction. All the stuff he is doing is either within his power or adjacent. He is willing to chance the courts deciding whether it is in his power just to test the controls. I think the media needs to temper themselves and wait for the "big one" he tries to slip through so that we don't need to try to decipher whether they are "extra-outraged" or just "regular-outraged."