We are two weeks away from electing someone who adamantly does not understand tariffs. He legit would have been bullied in my high school econ class for being this persistently stupid. Pretty neat how he can impose them without congress, right?

https://i.redd.it/jr9f5yh1mwwd1.jpeg

by Working-Sand-6929

35 comments

  1. Wild that so many have zero idea how tariffs work. Americans will foot the bill for this guys idiotic tariffs.

  3. What amazes me about this is it’s been eight years since his tariff talk started. He still doesn’t know how they work.

    Edit: Trump also talks about how tariffs were effective in the 1800s. They were effective cause the US wasn’t as heavily reliant on foreign countries as we are now. It worked then, it won’t work now.

  4. Corporations aren’t going to eat the tariffs. They’ll pay it and the Treasury will collect. Then the corporations will pass the added expense onto the consumer because they figure we knew it was coming. Then China will retaliate somehow and maybe try to get around the tariffs.

  5. You know, one of my favorite questions to ask MAGAs lately has been “Do you think it’s possible that tariffs and trade wars can lead to higher prices?”

    They never answer it. I suspect the reason for this is because even they understand that, yeah, his decisions definitely did not make inflation better.

    I literally had one tell me he won’t answer because he didn’t want me to say “Gotcha!” when he did. I said “Well, I guess that means that you do indeed know the answer then, and that’s good enough for me.” He suddenly was very upset and no longer had time to chat with me, apparently because I’m not willing to listen to reason.

    What a chump *I* am.

  7. It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t get it. He may be an expert at tariffs for all we know (hey, there is a non zero chance!).

    What really matters is that his supporters don’t understand basic stuff. He ties tariff directly to their taxes and inflation. He knows that directly affects their pockets, so of course lying about it makes his supporters love him more. It may also sway people in the middle who think he is “honest”.

    It doesn’t matter if congress approves or not. He wins either way with his base because it’s always someone’s else fault with Trump.

  8. It’s wild to me that he tries to argue that both:

    1. Tariffs will help bolster local production.
    2. Tariffs won’t raise prices.

    The way that tariffs are supposed to help bolster local production is by increasing the price of imports to the point that domestic goods are more competitively priced. So they need to raise consumer prices for domestic manufacturers to benefit from them.

    The two fundamental points for most tariff supporters are logically inconsistent with each other.

  10. I think if he grew up not an entitled little biznitch he would actually be be normal. He never had to work for anything thats why hes the way he is. He thinks everything coming out of his mouth is facts lolz

  11. For the MAGA people that frequent this sub, I really have to ask: Is Trump a liar or is he stupid?

  12. “He legit would have been bullied in my high school econ class.”

    Yes. Unfortunately, we are in the age of disinformation. There’s a few reasons someone votes for Trump, none of them good for our economy or democracy. Either Trump supporters are the likes of GOP leaders who are silent or do not speak the truth about Trump because it is not politically expedient; a citizen who has been duped by massive disinformation and/or doesn’t know history; a Billionaire like Elon Musk who doesn’t care Trump’s economic policies, tariffs and tax cuts for the rich, will harm lower and middle income Americans; an Evangelical who, I shit you not, thinks Trump is the chosen one; or you have conservatives who have reached cult status. They literally rolled out a golden statue of Trump at CPAC.

    The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy summed up Trump’s proposals on tariffs and taxes. Measured as a share of income, the Trump tax increases would fall hardest on working-class families. As illustrated, the middle 20 percent of Americans would face a tax increase equal to 2.1 percent of their income, while the poorest 20 percent of Americans would face a tax increase equal to 4.8 percent of their income – all while the top 5 percent get a tax cut.

    A vote for Trump is a vote for a hit to the wallet of working class Americans. I compare it to voting for conservatives over the last 50 years, for their promised trickle down policy, that never arrived. It simply accelerated inequality and shifted wealth to the top. I have faith that eventually a larger percentage of working class Americans will understand that reality. Hopefully that happens in 2024 and we can move to a more positive path.

  13. Republicans voters and voting against their own economic interests: name a more iconic duo

    The Republican coalition has been doing this for a long time. It is cobbled together from various single issues voting blocks and the oligarchs realized that if they can get the single issue blocks mobilized on abortion, gun rights, etc. Then they can pick their pockets while they are distracted…

  14. Lol one of Trump’s university teacher called him the stupidest student he ever had in his career so its not that surprising that he doesn’t get tariffs.

  15. We learned in school that putting massive tariffs on imports just sparked the ignition of war

  17. There is a saying, and I’m paraphrasing, that you can’t change someone’s point of view using logic if they didn’t use logic to acquire their views to begin with. First, one needs at least rudimentary understanding of micro and macro economics to understand tariffs, trade, inflation etc., and few people do in general, especially the hard-core Trump fans. Trump tells them whatever he wants, and they believe it but it’s not like he uses rational scientific arguments to convince them. So, you can’t change their views on the subject with facts or by appealing to a Nobel laureate’s opinion. Second, I’m afraid Trump himself doesn’t understand it. Why? Well, he didn’t have these crazy proposals 8 years ago, so these are likely not his long-held beliefs or ideas; he must have learned them from some kooky economists in the last 4 years and he liked them, because they fit neatly into his isolationist worldview. Third, and it’s even worse, the free market economy needs a light touch and steady, hands-off leadership; no sudden moves. And that’s quite opposite to what Trump is and does. Now, if we truly were in dire straights as a nation, like in the grip of a Great Depression, then perhaps drastic and counterintuitive measures would be called for, but that’s not the case. Surely, people are upset about inflation, but it’s been brought down already using tried and true methods, and we don’t need a sudden intervention; quite the opposite. Unfortunately, people don’t understand that prices will NEVER come down; it’s like when you are climbing a mountain and you reach a plateu, you have leveled up, but you are at a higher elevation. There is not mechanism to bring the absolute price level back down; you just need incomes to catch to the new price level and stay there.

  18. Fortunately, he’s not going to win. He hasn’t done anything to win new voters. He’s just been catering to the same, shrinking crowd that he’s always been going after. His continue insistence on being wrong about Tariffs are a damning indictment on Wharton

  20. it’s crazy how stupid trump is – yet many people think he’s a genius

    remember when he invented priming the pump? what a jackass

  23. Don’t forget we will pay for IVF for everyone, these tariffs will somehow generate an amazing amount of money for our country to pay for everything, we won’t even need taxes anymore according to him.

  24. So tell me how this works. If a company has to pay their employees more, that is bad because it will cause prices to rise. How stupid is it to believe that company will just absorb the extra costs. But that is exactly what Trump is saying will happen with the companies that build overseas. They will just absorb the extra costs.

    But if they absorb the extra costs, that doesn’t make it so US companies can compete. It is absurdly obvious.

  27. Something I rarely hear people talk about in tariff conversations is the need to have local manufacturing/production capabilities. Fine, so you impose tariffs to encourage people to “buy American” but Trump is talking about sweeping “revenge” tariffs, not just a single product like steel. If he imposed them all at once many of the goods China produces are no longer made here. American companies wouldn’t be able to ramp up production, build new factories, etc. for a long period of time. This would cause enormous disruption and financial chaos. Additionally, because we are now such a globally connected world, any product most likely contains, dozens, hundreds or thousands of parts, pieces and components from all over the world. You can’t immediately start producing them all here, and if you had to import them they would be subject to tariffs (I know I am being grossly simplistic). It makes no sense at all. Combine that with the sudden deportation of thousands of immigrants and you end up with a disaster. Who will pick the fruits and vegetables, build the houses, or perform many other tasks that either American workers don’t want or are not skilled at. Then you add in Project 2025 with the elimination of numerous agencies and career government employees [to I suppose be replaced by MAGA cultists] and you get even MORE financial chaos.

    Bottom line: he is a fucking idiot who has conned millions of people into believing he is smart and is going to make everything better.

  29. I’m pretty certain he knows how tariffs work — he’s not stupid, he graduated from Penn with a B.S. in Economics. That said, I’m sure he’s saying this with the assumption that his voters don’t understand tariffs and will take this statement at face value.

  30. Anyone suggesting we should be more like China and/or model ourselves on China is no patriot and values nothing of personal freedoms.

  31. whats sad is not only does he not know what a tariff is but his followers believe it and are to lazy to look things like this up

  32. Trump is equal parts bald faced pathological liar, and ignoramus/moron.

    It’s impossible to tell whether he’s lying, or just that stupid.

  33. How this works in the real world:

    I worked for a company that designed industrial equipment. We’d order some components from China, and the invoice would have one line for the equipment charge and another line for the tariff charge. We had to pay both. We did the same thing to our customers – they would order units from us, and we’d bill them for the equipment and also for the tariff charge.

    The consumer ultimately pays the tariffs.

  34. Nothing like bully economics from an illiterate, malignant narcissist. 🤦‍♂️🙄

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