President Trump and US politics catchall

[Hal Jordan]

Trump will be salivating at the thought of world leaders, presidents, dictators, kings and princes lining up to beg his forgiveness and offer suitable fealty in return for his generosity in lowering the tariffs. Moron.

[Flockwitt]

It's the US companies and people that are paying for this. It is so unbelieveably stupid. You can't just rewire global supply chains by the flick of a switch. For what exactly are they doing this? To balance the books for the tax break Trump is going to give?

[Biffer]

They put a tariff on the British Indian Ocean Territory.

The only thing there is a US / UK military base.

[laurent]

They put a tariff on the British Indian Ocean Territory.

The only thing there is a US / UK military base.

They put some on French Guyana and Reunion ...

[Slick]

How long will it be before these start to bite?

[Yeeb]

How long will it be before these start to bite?

Us consumer - soon

Uk consumer - mostly will be unnoticed

Uk employee of a company exposed to US trade - next March when their bonus is crap

[tabascoboy]

Trump will be salivating at the thought of world leaders, presidents, dictators, kings and princes lining up to beg his forgiveness and offer suitable fealty in return for his generosity in lowering the tariffs. Moron.

[Flockwitt]

The Whitehouse stating, "Trust in President Trump."

[lemonhead]

It's the US companies and people that are paying for this. It is so unbelieveably stupid. You can't just rewire global supply chains by the flick of a switch. For what exactly are they doing this? To balance the books for the tax break Trump is going to give?

The foreign businesses pay as well, presuming it's somewhat targeted.

A Scottish whisky producer was on earlier in the week saying that similar tariffs were in place for 18 months a few years back and he had to meet his US distrubutor halfway with both of them swallowing a hit to keep consumer price unaffected. Feck knows what now at scale of course, it's between nations and a case of whoever blinks fitst.

[Yeeb]

The Whitehouse stating, "Trust in President Trump."

That was the tagline from 1980’s spoof US cop show “Sledgehammer”

“Trust me, I know what I’m doing”
BOOOM everyone dies

[Guy Smiley]

Media scaremongering as usual, ‘ftse plunges as Starmer says tariffs will hurt Britain ‘ cries the telegraph

FTSE now down 1.35%, at the lower end of a normal days negative movement . Five percent drop would be a plunge , most stuff has already long been priced in as usual.

Dax down 1.7, cac 2.1, fx rate movements seem under 2 % as well, ho hum

uh huh

[laurent]

They put a tariff on the British Indian Ocean Territory.

The only thing there is a US / UK military base.

They put some on French Guyana and Reunion ...

Oh and they have added tariff to Heard and McDonald islands which are empty (except if you count penguins and elephant seals).
The representative for la Réunion simply stated Trump was an ignorant...

https://www.lematin.ch/story/guerre-com ... -103317113

[Yeeb]

Media scaremongering as usual, ‘ftse plunges as Starmer says tariffs will hurt Britain ‘ cries the telegraph

FTSE now down 1.35%, at the lower end of a normal days negative movement . Five percent drop would be a plunge , most stuff has already long been priced in as usual.

Dax down 1.7, cac 2.1, fx rate movements seem under 2 % as well, ho hum

uh huh

Closed 1.55 down

[Guy Smiley]

Media scaremongering as usual, ‘ftse plunges as Starmer says tariffs will hurt Britain ‘ cries the telegraph

FTSE now down 1.35%, at the lower end of a normal days negative movement . Five percent drop would be a plunge , most stuff has already long been priced in as usual.

Dax down 1.7, cac 2.1, fx rate movements seem under 2 % as well, ho hum

uh huh

Closed 1.55 down

It's not opening well.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/02/stock-m ... riffs.html

[dpedin]

The only thing certain about yesterday's announcements is that Trump and his bunch of brownshirts will change all these tariffs in the short - medium term. These are just the starting point for Trump to try and bully and leverage 'deals' with the rest of the world. They know this will screw their economy if anything other than a short term tactic and are counting on the fact that most of the world will fold pretty quickly and come to them with their tails between their legs offering presents. However if the likes of Canada, the EU and China decide to play hardball then the US is screwed and Trump will have to look for a way out asap.

The problem Trump is facing is like the Brexit consequences. The frog eyed dimwit Brexiteers said Brexit would hit the German car makers and the French cheese makers just as hard as it hit us but they forgot that the UK would be hit by the full force of Brexit and its relationship with every EU member whereas the EU share of Brexit impact was only damaging a small % of their business ie the trade with the UK. Most EU member states and businesses managed the impact well whereas the UK has had a 4% hit to its GDP. Trumps tariffs are the same: imports into US from every country will be hit and increase in cost to consumers whereas for the rest of the world the US tariff impact, whilst damaging, will only hit a % of their exports. The UKs exports to the US are about 17% of all our exports, only c30% of what we export to the EU for example and whilst it will hit some specific industries hard like car manufacturing, whisky, etc the impact for many others is minimal. If Canada, EU, China etc retaliate and play hard ball then the US will be hit the hardest and Trump will either fold or else commit political suicide!

The longer term issue for the US ie the next 3-4 years is who the hell will develop and invest in a business model reliant on the US market? Confidence in the US was built over decades and has been lost in 100 days. They are now the pariah of world trade and are in danger of becoming isolated completely as countries and businesses invest in models less reliant on the US. I fear for the US even more than before ... the US is lost!

Bit disingenuous linking US tariffs on everyone , with Brexit to fit your agenda. The Brexit related tariffs / end of exemptions , could have been not applied had EU wanted to not retaliate (and in any case mostly the status quo has remained thus far) and uk retaliate to the retaliation… tit for tat rarely works.

However I agree with you 100% that this is merely a start for Trump and it’s his way of bullying deal making. Be interesting to see how this pans out & for us, what Starmer does (probs best if he continues to do fuck all really and let other countries fight the US)

I don't think it is disingenuous at all to use the Brexit example! I was using the Brexit issue as an example of the idiocy of the argument from Trump et al that tariffs impact everyone equally. All goods going into the US from every country in the world, apart from Russia it seems, will have tariffs applied on them and the totality of this will impact hugely on the US economy. It. will drive up prices for consumers. The impact on every other country will be proportional to the amount of trade they have with the US and probably only in specific sectors/industries. Exactly the same issue applied to Brexit - all our goods coming from every EU country were impacted by Brexit whereas for EU countries it was only whatever proportion of exports they sent to the UK, which for some wasn't very much. Both are excellent examples of economic self harm being sold by dodgy politicians to the economic illiterate!

[laurent]

https://mastodon.top/@nbs@noauthority.s ... 7952774281

[Yeeb]

The only thing certain about yesterday's announcements is that Trump and his bunch of brownshirts will change all these tariffs in the short - medium term. These are just the starting point for Trump to try and bully and leverage 'deals' with the rest of the world. They know this will screw their economy if anything other than a short term tactic and are counting on the fact that most of the world will fold pretty quickly and come to them with their tails between their legs offering presents. However if the likes of Canada, the EU and China decide to play hardball then the US is screwed and Trump will have to look for a way out asap.

The problem Trump is facing is like the Brexit consequences. The frog eyed dimwit Brexiteers said Brexit would hit the German car makers and the French cheese makers just as hard as it hit us but they forgot that the UK would be hit by the full force of Brexit and its relationship with every EU member whereas the EU share of Brexit impact was only damaging a small % of their business ie the trade with the UK. Most EU member states and businesses managed the impact well whereas the UK has had a 4% hit to its GDP. Trumps tariffs are the same: imports into US from every country will be hit and increase in cost to consumers whereas for the rest of the world the US tariff impact, whilst damaging, will only hit a % of their exports. The UKs exports to the US are about 17% of all our exports, only c30% of what we export to the EU for example and whilst it will hit some specific industries hard like car manufacturing, whisky, etc the impact for many others is minimal. If Canada, EU, China etc retaliate and play hard ball then the US will be hit the hardest and Trump will either fold or else commit political suicide!

The longer term issue for the US ie the next 3-4 years is who the hell will develop and invest in a business model reliant on the US market? Confidence in the US was built over decades and has been lost in 100 days. They are now the pariah of world trade and are in danger of becoming isolated completely as countries and businesses invest in models less reliant on the US. I fear for the US even more than before ... the US is lost!

Bit disingenuous linking US tariffs on everyone , with Brexit to fit your agenda. The Brexit related tariffs / end of exemptions , could have been not applied had EU wanted to not retaliate (and in any case mostly the status quo has remained thus far) and uk retaliate to the retaliation… tit for tat rarely works.

However I agree with you 100% that this is merely a start for Trump and it’s his way of bullying deal making. Be interesting to see how this pans out & for us, what Starmer does (probs best if he continues to do fuck all really and let other countries fight the US)

I don't think it is disingenuous at all to use the Brexit example! I was using the Brexit issue as an example of the idiocy of the argument from Trump et al that tariffs impact everyone equally. All goods going into the US from every country in the world, apart from Russia it seems, will have tariffs applied on them and the totality of this will impact hugely on the US economy. It. will drive up prices for consumers. The impact on every other country will be proportional to the amount of trade they have with the US and probably only in specific sectors/industries. Exactly the same issue applied to Brexit - all our goods coming from every EU country were impacted by Brexit whereas for EU countries it was only whatever proportion of exports they sent to the UK, which for some wasn't very much. Both are excellent examples of economic self harm being sold by dodgy politicians to the economic illiterate!

I can see you don’t think it’s dis ingenious :

Us acts versus almost the entire planet, Uk acts versus the Eu (I’m not saying it wasn’t major, but it wasn’t the picking fight with entire planet Trump has)

Us is the instigator of tariffs , Brexit was the scorned party invoking tariffs which it could had it wished not wish to re-employ. But it was feeling some retaliation was needed, Trump has seen this and used a similar thought process only turned the dial up to 11

Uk could have moved some of its economic ties and trade elsewhere , as has happened to an extent with several agreements that certain people swore were going to be impossible to get agreed. US taking on the whole world, doesn’t really leave anywhere else for demand and supply to move elsewhere.

So fairly different really.

The economic self harm mis-sold now that I can agree with, however for the larger section of referendum voters (myself included) it was a price deemed worth paying for political and immagratory reasons (not the sides of buses or bendy bananas).
It should also be noted there were also economic lies told by team remain as well.

[Yeeb]

uh huh

Closed 1.55 down

It's not opening well.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/02/stock-m ... riffs.html

Next big fall will be reaction to the reaction, so need to see if any tit for tat happens. Being lower hit than say our nearest neighbours , and being more service based that has escaped more (for now), uk could gain a bit of comparative advantage here purely by fluke.

[Hal Jordan]

Good Lord, just had it pointed out to me that Myanmar has been hit with 44% tariffs. Cruelty is the point.

[fishfoodie]

Good Lord, just had it pointed out to me that Myanmar has been hit with 44% tariffs. Cruelty is the point.

Sri Lankan is still in the middle of a financial crisis, & they're being hit with massive, unsustainable tariffs too.

There's no sense to most of it; it's just performative cruelty.

Does he expect the poorest 80% of the planet to suddenly start earning enough to buy Tesla's & Bourbon, when they can't even afford food ?

[lemonhead]

Good Lord, just had it pointed out to me that Myanmar has been hit with 44% tariffs. Cruelty is the point.

Sri Lankan is still in the middle of a financial crisis, & they're being hit with massive, unsustainable tariffs too.

There's no sense to most of it; it's just performative cruelty.

Does he expect the poorest 80% of the planet to suddenly start earning enough to buy Tesla's & Bourbon, when they can't even afford food ?

Maybe he just likes all the nonstop attention.

Glad Vexler finally explained a bit of the Cluster B shithousery going on. Everyone else seems to think there's some masterplan at play, if only we could decode the damn thing.

[fishfoodie]

Well clothes are going to get a lot more expensive in the US; Bangladesh, Vietnam, Sri Lanka & Cambodia all hit with massive tariffs

Real proof that the trump admin recognises but doesn't understand the problem. US has trade deficits because they don't make things anymore. The solution isn't getting low paid sweatshop jobs back. It's moving up the value chain to make stuff that other people want and it's valuable but that would require foresight, vision, commitment and planning.

That would also require American companies to start paying American workers what their worth, & that isn't something any of them want to do !

Just witness the herd of tech bros led by Space Karen who ran to the Oval Office to plead to no changes to H1B indentured slavery scheme that has propped up the tech sector for decades now.

The decline of US Manufacturing all started with Reagan breaking the ATC Union, & from that thru NAFTA the Unions became utterly useless, & ever more corrupt; just look at the cocksuckers in charge of the AWU & the Teamsters supporting the guy who preferred to bribe the Union Leaders & his tech bro allies who fight tooth & nail against Unions in their businesses !

[Hal Jordan]

People have to stop trying to engage with this nonsense as though it's supposed to make rational sense. It's just an obsession for a mentally unravelling old man, who has spent his entire business life being the dumbest man in the room, but scraping by by being the one who is the most malevolent, unscrupulous and unbound by external reality, or even his own medium to long term interests.

it's just that any policy goal you might try and impose on this chaos then immediately leads you to think of the five different things they could have done to achieve that end that might have worked, and wouldn't burn the world down.

And I don't think that Trump came up with this. Some freakish crank in his circle has had this pet theory and he's just run with it. It's the economic version of drinking cattle dewormer.

[Sandstorm]

People have to stop trying to engage with this nonsense as though it's supposed to make rational sense. It's just an obsession for a mentally unravelling old man, who has spent his entire business life being the dumbest man in the room, but scraping by by being the one who is the most malevolent, unscrupulous and unbound by external reality, or even his own medium to long term interests.

it's just that any policy goal you might try and impose on this chaos then immediately leads you to think of the five different things they could have done to achieve that end that might have worked, and wouldn't burn the world down.

And I don't think that Trump came up with this. Some freakish crank in his circle has had this pet theory and he's just run with it. It's the economic version of drinking cattle dewormer.

I know it’s career suicide to be the journalist in the White House Pressroom who asks this question, but someone has to do it:

“Mr President, you’re clearly too stupid to come up with these tariffs on your own. Which one of your psychotic minions in the back office gave you today’s announcement that will make the world a little more awful?”

[Enzedder]

I would just ask "Is this the economic equivalent of injecting bleach?"

[Slick]

People have to stop trying to engage with this nonsense as though it's supposed to make rational sense. It's just an obsession for a mentally unravelling old man, who has spent his entire business life being the dumbest man in the room, but scraping by by being the one who is the most malevolent, unscrupulous and unbound by external reality, or even his own medium to long term interests.

it's just that any policy goal you might try and impose on this chaos then immediately leads you to think of the five different things they could have done to achieve that end that might have worked, and wouldn't burn the world down.

And I don't think that Trump came up with this. Some freakish crank in his circle has had this pet theory and he's just run with it. It's the economic version of drinking cattle dewormer.

There is quite a bit of reporting today saying it is something he has been espousing for decades

[TB63]

https://www.instagram.com/stories/theda ... k2cmszYjB0

[Flockwitt]

Well clothes are going to get a lot more expensive in the US; Bangladesh, Vietnam, Sri Lanka & Cambodia all hit with massive tariffs

Real proof that the trump admin recognises but doesn't understand the problem. US has trade deficits because they don't make things anymore. The solution isn't getting low paid sweatshop jobs back. It's moving up the value chain to make stuff that other people want and it's valuable but that would require foresight, vision, commitment and planning.

That would also require American companies to start paying American workers what their worth, & that isn't something any of them want to do !

Just witness the herd of tech bros led by Space Karen who ran to the Oval Office to plead to no changes to H1B indentured slavery scheme that has propped up the tech sector for decades now.

The decline of US Manufacturing all started with Reagan breaking the ATC Union, & from that thru NAFTA the Unions became utterly useless, & ever more corrupt; just look at the cocksuckers in charge of the AWU & the Teamsters supporting the guy who preferred to bribe the Union Leaders & his tech bro allies who fight tooth & nail against Unions in their businesses !

It's a bit more complex and longer running even than that, but the bottom line is, you know, 6 months ago the US had full employment, and more new factories going in than anytime in 50 years. The US doesn't have the workforce or the supply chain to bring the offshore manufacturing back. And why should you? Globalisation actually works. Actually I take that back, the US might have had the workforce but those pesky illegal aliens are all sent back to where they belong. So there!

[Niegs]

Or would Americans pay what it costs American companies to make stuff they'd get cheaper from Asia? This is where I think most people don't give a fudge... happy to buy cheap tat and have it delivered to them by people struggling to get by.

The Climate Town podcast did a look at the environmental costs of fast fashion and free returns to Amazon. Looked into doing merch that was plastic free (I thought completely American, but I see it's only part - produced in Canada, using bamboo I assume comes from Asia, hemp presumably from NA, and embroidered in Oregon)... resulting in a baseball cap that costs $48 USD. https://merch.climatetownproductions.co ... -hat-black

[Guy Smiley]

[Niegs]

Hope The Bern outlives Trump by a lot...

[lemonhead]

In some cases involving Norfolk Island, which is 1,600km north-east of Sydney and has a population of 2,188, the confusion appears to have resulted from the fact that the company’s address or port of departure is Norfolk, UK, or the destination is Norfolk, Virginia in the US, or a company’s registered address in New Hampshire (NH) has been listed instead as Norfolk Island (NI).

Norfolk Island was this week hit with a 29% tariff on its goods – 19 percentage points higher than the rest of Australia – despite claiming to have no export relationship with the US.

The decision has perplexed the Australian government, with Australia’s prime minister saying it was evidence “nowhere was safe” from Trump’s tariffs. The country’s trade minister, Don Farrell, said it was “clearly a mistake”.

George Plant, the administrator of Norfolk Island, told the Guardian on Thursday: “There are no known exports from Norfolk Island to the United States.”

But according to US government data, presented by the Observatory of Economic Complexity, Norfolk Island exported US$655,000 (A$1.04m) worth of goods to the US in 2023, with its main export being US$413,000 (A$658,000) worth of leather footwear.

There is one large shoe shop on Norfolk Island, Franks Shoes. Its manager said in an email to the Guardian: “We are a shoe shop selling shoes to the tourists that visit the island and do not export shoes to the US or have any business with the US.”

The Guardian has identified two bills of lading – records of cargo shipments – for shipments each containing 3,714 black Timberland men’s ankle boots that set sail from South Riding port in the Bahamas for Miami, Florida, in December 2023. The shipments were worth a combined total of US$315,000 (A$498,000).

The bills of lading list “Norfolk Island” as the country of origin and the address of the shipper as Timberland, 200 Domain Drive, Stratham 03885-2575, Norfolk Island.

Timberland’s corporate office address is listed as 200 Domain Drive, Stratham, New Hampshire on its LinkedIn page

Finding it hard to even laugh at this shit anymore.

What damage will this bunch of tossers wreak, and for nothing.

[Enzedder]

Yeah, its a mistake which will cost Norfolk Island ... nothing

[Kiwias]

Finding it hard to even laugh at this shit anymore.

What damage will this bunch of tossers wreak, and for nothing.

Many of those who voted for him still cling to the idiotic notion that Kamala as president would have been a disaster for the country.

[lemonhead]

Yeah, its a mistake which will cost Norfolk Island ... nothing

Oh, for sure they're able to stick it in the daily schmaz section of the Norfolk Happenings, alongside record Araucaria growth stats.

I mean, this fkin shower in charge of far bigger shit. With real world consequences for so many of us.

[Yeeb]

Real proof that the trump admin recognises but doesn't understand the problem. US has trade deficits because they don't make things anymore. The solution isn't getting low paid sweatshop jobs back. It's moving up the value chain to make stuff that other people want and it's valuable but that would require foresight, vision, commitment and planning.

That would also require American companies to start paying American workers what their worth, & that isn't something any of them want to do !

Just witness the herd of tech bros led by Space Karen who ran to the Oval Office to plead to no changes to H1B indentured slavery scheme that has propped up the tech sector for decades now.

The decline of US Manufacturing all started with Reagan breaking the ATC Union, & from that thru NAFTA the Unions became utterly useless, & ever more corrupt; just look at the cocksuckers in charge of the AWU & the Teamsters supporting the guy who preferred to bribe the Union Leaders & his tech bro allies who fight tooth & nail against Unions in their businesses !

It's a bit more complex and longer running even than that, but the bottom line is, you know, 6 months ago the US had full employment, and more new factories going in than anytime in 50 years. The US doesn't have the workforce or the supply chain to bring the offshore manufacturing back. And why should you? Globalisation actually works. Actually I take that back, the US might have had the workforce but those pesky illegal aliens are all sent back to where they belong. So there!

Globalisation works you say ? Didn’t seem that way when Covid happened and Germany blocked any other European country getting masks, including about 7m units of our own lovely PPE from our factory in E Europe someplace to our EMEA hub in venlo, Netherlands.

Or during Ukraine war when everyone realises their own munitions comes from the US and taps have now been turned off & question marks raised about quality of future arms from there

Or when that ship blocked suez and container charges soared worldwide


Very valid economic argument that countries of a certain size and wealth, could and should have certain domestic capabilities and key industries and not have to rely on cheap inports. This especially includes food and power. The bamboo baseball cap example from the previous post, probably wouldn’t be included.

[Sandstorm]

Globalisation works you say ? Didn’t seem that way when Covid happened and Germany blocked any other European country getting masks, including about 7m units of our own lovely PPE from our factory in E Europe someplace to our EMEA hub in venlo, Netherlands.

Or during Ukraine war when everyone realises their own munitions comes from the US and taps have now been turned off & question marks raised about quality of future arms from there

Or when that ship blocked suez and container charges soared worldwide

So 3 examples in about 75 years during conflict/pandemic when it doesn't work? Putz.

[Yeeb]

Globalisation works you say ? Didn’t seem that way when Covid happened and Germany blocked any other European country getting masks, including about 7m units of our own lovely PPE from our factory in E Europe someplace to our EMEA hub in venlo, Netherlands.

Or during Ukraine war when everyone realises their own munitions comes from the US and taps have now been turned off & question marks raised about quality of future arms from there

Or when that ship blocked suez and container charges soared worldwide

So 3 examples in about 75 years during conflict/pandemic when it doesn't work? Putz.

Don’t be a dick, plenty of more examples if you want:
Mining communities destroyed because it’s cheaper to buy from abroad
That co2 shortage a few years back that disrupted food and drinks and pubs across the world
Us rust belt
Aral Sea & how global cotton market somewhat altered it
Kobe earthquake & bearings bank
Credit crunch, CDO’s etc

[Rhubarb & Custard]

whether one likes globalisation or not it's a reality, if you want to step back from it there are some things you'd need to do away with, modern shipping, flying, the internet. if you're not willing to give up those things then why take on the Sisyphean task of raging against globalisation rather than trying to swim with the tide and even harness some of its offerings? even if Trump's plan works, and it's a big if, all he'll achieve is a less productive and over time less relevant USA. unless he seeks another means of maintaining primacy which would be destroying economies elsewhere faster than he can hurt his own

[Yeeb]

whether one likes globalisation or not it's a reality, if you want to step back from it there are some things you'd need to do away with, modern shipping, flying, the internet. if you're not willing to give up those things then why take on the Sisyphean task of raging against globalisation rather than trying to swim with the tide and even harness some of its offerings? even if Trump's plan works, and it's a big if, all he'll achieve is a less productive and over time less relevant USA. unless he seeks another means of maintaining primacy which would be destroying economies elsewhere faster than he can hurt his own

Oh I’m a huge fan of globalisation and have personally benefitted from it immensely , I just don’t think it can be blanket said to work and that larger wealthier countries should deffo have more key stuff like food, medicine, power , steel , defence etc domestic capacity. And that would require lots of carrots, rather than Trump sticks.