USA Politics

This piece appears in the White House web-page. Astonishing. Not written by Trump, but by a highly educated individual, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers and student of Martin Feldstein. This is for the history books. I will post here just his main points, of how other Nations could share the burden of helping US continue being their Hegemon:

What forms can that burden sharing take? There are many options, here are a few ideas:
  • First, other countries can accept tariffs on their exports to the United States without retaliation, providing revenue to the U.S. Treasury to finance public goods provision. Critically, retaliation will exacerbate rather than improve the distribution of burdens and make it even more difficult for us to finance global public goods.
  • Second, they can stop unfair and harmful trading practices by opening their markets and buying more from America;
  • Third, they can boost defence spending and procurement from the U.S., buying more U.S.-made goods, and taking strain off our service members and creating jobs here;
  • Fourth, they can invest in and install factories in America. They won’t face tariffs if they make their stuff in this country;
  • Fifth, they could simply write checks to Treasury that help us finance global public goods.
www.whitehouse.gov

CEA Chairman Steve Miran Hudson Institute Event Remarks

Today I’d like to discuss the United States’ provision of what economists call “global public goods,” for the entire world. First, the United States
www.whitehouse.gov
 
Yes but the key here is that this comes from an Elite person who holds a key position in the Administration. This is not just to please Trump, he believes those things. All these people will not disappear when Trump goes away. This is basically American exceptionalism mindset and it's spread among Republicans and Democrats alike. The rhetoric is different, only.

Remember what happened with the first Trade war? Trump started it but Democrats doubled down. Thus Trump or not Trump whatever happens now, will set the course for decades to come. Or do you think that if, for instance, Trump takes Greenland Democrats will give back later? And so on...
 
This is one thing but seeing how many countries fell for it, is even more frustrating. Especially with statements as the above that countries could “write checks to Treasury that help us finance global public goods” or Trump saying about those countries’ leaders that are “kissing my ass” what the actual fuck.
 
UpTheIrons said:
One frustration with being a diehard MAGA guy must be having to defend a policy one day and then defending the exact opposite the next day when Trump U-turns...
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It's an impressive amount of mental gymnastics that they have to keep doing to justify their loyalty to Trump. There's something deliciously ironic about conservatives blasting Biden for the economy, voting for Trump to lower prices (even though historically Republicans are bad for the economy), only for everything to crash and burn right now. I've already seen Trump supporters complaining about how they can't afford anything anymore, but they aren't ready yet to take accountability and acknowledge that this is a direct consequence of their vote.

Sucks for everyone else caught in the crossfire though.
 
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____no5 said:
Yes but the key here is that this comes from an Elite person who holds a key position in the Administration.
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What a comical qualifier.
____no5 said:
This is one thing but seeing how many countries fell for it, is even more frustrating. Especially with statements as the above that countries could “write checks to Treasury that help us finance global public goods” or Trump saying about those countries’ leaders that are “kissing my ass” what the actual fuck.
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When asked to provide the list of the countries that reached out for details, the White House punted. Just as was the case for the initial round of tariffs on Canada and Mexico, the reversal was made without concessions from any other country. The White House merely shit a brick at the bond market getting wobbly.
 
____no5 said:
This is one thing but seeing how many countries fell for it, is even more frustrating. Especially with statements as the above that countries could “write checks to Treasury that help us finance global public goods” or Trump saying about those countries’ leaders that are “kissing my ass” what the actual fuck.
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I'm gonna lean out the window and say that was a pure and blatant lie.
 
Flaming Blimp Crash said:
When asked to provide the list of the countries that reached out for details, the White House punted. Just as was the case for the initial round of tariffs on Canada and Mexico, the reversal was made without concessions from any other country. The White House merely shit a brick at the bond market getting wobbly.
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Could be.
But there was India, Taiwan, Japan, Israel, Vietnam, Korea and more that reached out.
 
____no5 said:
Could be.
But there was India, Taiwan, Japan, Israel, Vietnam, Korea and more that reached out.
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No, it's not a 'could be.' Trump's own words said he had to reverse because people were getting afraid and 'queasy.' He was willing to stomach stock market drops, but as soon as news comes out that there's trouble afoot in the bond market, he folds. If people were offering deals, why'd he not take them? Let's look at this from Trump's perspective - if the other countries were the ones that were afraid and you've backed them into a corner, why would you suddenly pull back?

When he reversed on Canada and Mexico earlier in the year, he was boasting that he backed both countries down on border concessions when both were strictly adhering to agreements already made and being enforced during the Biden administration. It's Trump, to him, he always has to look strong - instead he bowed out and is projecting weakness. Not only that, but he's now shown to the countries that hold US debt how to back the US down. He blinked and gave the world a strategic opening.
 
Ah ok I see what you mean. But even so, the damage is done as the end of trade with China is irreversible and that alone can be immensely disruptive.

I wasn’t focused if Trump “chickened” or not at all, I couldn’t care less; it’s the usual Trump, back and forth all the time but those things they posted in the White House site above or him saying the leaders are “kissing my ass” are outrageous enough on their own right.
 
Perun said:
Can we say "told you so" now, or is it still too early for that?
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Yes in the way that I was expecting way more careful moves from a Trump's second term. But if you say that in comparison to Biden, the bar is incredibly high to clear.
I think the vision is there but he is incredibly inpatient which screws everything up. Tariffs' U-turn was a major blow to his ego but there is still time (theoretically) to put his act together and correct his course i.e., with China, but also in a more general way, as of planning more thoroughly, consulting more widely and executing more carefully. In this regard it's still early but I'm not holding my breath. He wants quick wins and this is a huge flaw, which may be proven disastrous.
 
Found this nice analysis about why Trump Administration is doing this and how it’s doomed to fail.
Much of the analysis is centered around deconstructing Steve Miran’s talk to Hudson Institute event.

 
____no5 said:
Yes in the way that I was expecting way more careful moves from a Trump's second term. But if you say that in comparison to Biden, the bar is incredibly high to clear.
I think the vision is there but he is incredibly inpatient which screws everything up. Tariffs' U-turn was a major blow to his ego but there is still time (theoretically) to put his act together and correct his course i.e., with China, but also in a more general way, as of planning more thoroughly, consulting more widely and executing more carefully. In this regard it's still early but I'm not holding my breath. He wants quick wins and this is a huge flaw, which may be proven disastrous.
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When is it time? When Trump evoked the Insurrection Act? When civil war breaks out openly in the US? When global production collapses? Or is that too dramatic again?
 
On the issue of Trade War he fucked up good but we still have a window of opportunity of say a month or so to change course.
On the issue of World Peace he still performs better than Biden, Trump’s “Russia” is Iran, it looks bad, but we aren’t there yet.
 
____no5 said:
On the issue of Trade War he fucked up good but we still have a window of opportunity of say a month or so to change course.
On the issue of World Peace he still performs better than Biden, Trump’s “Russia” is Iran, it looks bad, but we aren’t there yet.
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Has he though? I was actually hopeful that he may go some way to wrap up the ongoing global conflicts but so far all he has achieved is a botched and now broken ceasefire in Israel/Gaza and for all the theatre has basically accomplished nothing with regards to Ukraine. There has not been any indication whatsoever from Putin that he is going to back down from his maximalist objectives, most notably Ukraine handing over the four claimed oblasts to Russia, which has been repeatedly stated as being a red line for Ukraine.

Further to that, he has also continued to bomb the Houthis and is turning up the rhetoric on Iran, threatening bombing.
 
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