WanderingThoughts

Then they'll still think it was a good idea, it just went wrong in the execution.

Yeah, that's just Trump. He likes to be vengeful and a bully, using tariffs like a stick to beat others info submission. But he doesn't seem to know when enough is enough.

Project 2025 is split on the issue of foreign trade.[109] Mandate author Peter Navarro advocates what he calls a fair trade policy of reciprocal, higher tariffs on the European Union, China, and India, to achieve a balance of trade, though not all U.S. levies are lower than those of its major trading partners.[126] On the other hand, Mandate author Kent Lassman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute promotes a free trade policy of lowering or eliminating tariffs to cut costs for consumers, and calls for more free trade agreements.[126] He argues that Trump's and Biden's tariffs have undermined not just the American economy, but also the nation's international alliances.[117]

The first guy won apparently.

At the end of the day, there is an arrogance in these tariffs that says the world needs American goods and services more than America needs the world’s goods and that we will cave before America.

That's not even the case. USA is the biggest importer, helped along by having the world's reserve currency. Trump's idea is to force everybody to quickly build factories in America, and manufacturing was part of the golden age, so he brings wealth back to the States. That's why he keeps yammering on about the trade deficit.

I takes a few years to build a factory, from idea to first product. Many will figure it's easier to wait for a new president instead of actually committing billions to build out production, find workers and set up a local supply chain.

Trump will be remembered as the spark that caused the old world order to blow up, causing a lot of changes in the way things are done. China becomes the manufacturer of clean energy and uses their new status as having the reserve currency to stamp out all fossil fuels.

The amount of mixed signals coming from this administration is insane.

No, seems pretty straightforward. It's simply "we'll tariff-whip you into submission and make you buy our shit"

Musk is the guy that says he wants to burn society to the ground and rebuild it better. Then he's shocked people are focusing on and strongly disliking the burning part. Also people have seen the cyber truck and the yearly promises to have self driving next year for sure and don't trust his rebuilding abilities.

He's still a hero in his own mind, thinking "Can't people see I'm trying to improve society? Sure, several million people might lose everything and maybe die, but you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. It's for the greater good!" Now he's shocked the few million people scheduled for demolition strongly disagree.

Of course there is logic, but not the logic most politicians want to admit. This is simply:

"Nice global economy. It would be a shame if something happened to it. Maybe we can come to an understanding, and this whole tariff thing goes away. You do want free trade, don't you?"

That's why Tesla's full self driving is officially still a level 2 cruise control. But of course they promise to jump directly to level 4 soon™.

Nah. What he wants is bossing others around and taking revenge on people and things that bothered him, or going after things he thinks give him an advantage. That's usually by bullying people until they give up and do what he wants. His voters like DEI? Bully and force things until it's stamped out. Justice convicted him, so break justice. Consequences for jobs and the economy, or even the law, don't matter to him.