So what’s the current understanding of Trump’s tariffs? Was it simple market manipulation and they never intended to keep tariffs on long term? Or did the Trump govt really think this was a good idea to bring back manufacturing without understanding how this would impact the US economy and are now running from the consequences?
this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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I think most of Trump’s strategies come down to high stakes games of chicken. He correctly estimates that most world leaders are cowards who will accept any indignity the empire heaps on them, and that he won’t personally suffer consequences for anything he does. Given those two things, there’s little incentive for him to not at least try shaking down the entire planet just to see who capitulates.
Market manipulation was definitely a goal, but I do think that the admin genuinely did not understand the balance of power.
"He's a dumb jackass doing dumb jackass shit."
I’ve heard the theory that Trump 45 was mostly Ivanka and Jared Kushner while Mitch McConnell playing as the attempted puppet master (and in many cases succeeding). But now (for various reasons) they’re out of the picture, I think Trump 47, literally has no true plan nor ideology, he just wants to do whatever allows him to score victories.
He’s a “conservative” only by virtue of being both a billionaire and a sexist bigot, but he isn’t ideologically invested. He just wants to feed his legendary ego, that’s it.
I get the impression that Trump somehow thinks he's king of the world now and everyone needs to do what he says. He's acting like he's deluded himself into some kind of king like status.