Donald Trump had a plan. It was not a good plan, or even a plausible one. But it was, at least, a coherent plan: By imposing large trade barriers on the entire world, he would create an incentive for American business to manufacture and grow all the goods the country previously imported.
Whatever chance this plan had to succeed is already over.
The key to making it work was to convince businesses that the new arrangement is durable. Nobody is going to invest in building new factories in the United States to create goods that until last week could be imported more cheaply unless they’re certain that the tariffs making the domestic version more competitive will stay in place. (They’re probably not going to do it anyway, in part because they don’t know who will be president in four years, but the point is that confidence in durable tariffs is a necessary condition.)
But not everybody got the idea. Eric Trump tweeted, “I wouldn’t want to be the last country that tries to negotiate a trade deal with @realDonaldTrump. The first to negotiate will win - the last will absolutely lose.”
Eric’s father apparently didn’t get the memo either. Asked by reporters whether he planned to negotiate the tariff rates, the president said, “The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have.”
Someone seems to have then told Trump that this stance would paralyze business investment, because he reversed course immediately, writing on Truth Social, “TO THE MANY INVESTORS COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES AND INVESTING MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF MONEY, MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE.”
However, there is a principle at work here called “No backsies.” Once you’ve said you might negotiate the tariffs, nobody is going to believe you when you change your mind and say you’ll never negotiate.
There is no plan.
Trump’s plan was to get elected. He did that by saying he was going to MAGA, and he proposed to do that by removing immigrants, cutting government services, and taxing imports.
He got elected, so now he’s doing the things he said he would. He’s going to die in a decade or so, and he’s going to live in a hotel between now and then. He absolutely could not care less about the plight of the average global citizen, or that of the average American citizen for that matter. It’s like a game of sim city when you’ve covered the whole map. There’s not really anything left to do other than unleash some disasters.
Imagine a world leader learning that the world is flat. He directs his navy to sail to the edge of the earth and observe the earth in it’s true form. The navy leaves port because that’s what they were told to do but there’s not really a “plan” because the order is fundamentally flawed.
There is a plan. Replace as much of the government as possible with third party vendors run by loyal donors. Aka how they do it in Russia. once the old systems are gone Who’s gonna stop ya?
Here’s what they’re doing to the IRS with or without waiting for the lawsuits to end. (Just posted in another thread about the article it comes from):
Yeah. Downsizing government is always conservative speak for “outsourcing tasks to third parties”.
That’s obviously why Republicans are happy to stand by and watch Musk disassemble everything.
However, I maintain that Trump couldn’t care less about that. It doesn’t explain the tariffs
Or removing life-saving regulations and services.
Exactly, AND Musk kicks in money to sway elections for which he is rewarded more government contracts.