It’s absolutely mindboggling when you really think about what’s happening for a second.
No-one wants tariffs.
The rest of the world thinks it’s a bad idea, Americans think it’s a bad idea, economists say it will be catastrophic, republicans didn’t ask for it, even the republican party (albeit secretly) thinks this is a bad idea and would never have proposed this if it wasn’t for Trump.
It’s purely Trumps idea. It’s purely his own personal experiment that the entire world now has to participate in. 1 consciousness and its contents, inflicting its dumb idea onto the other 8 billion consciousnesses.
It would be different if republicans actually wanted this. But no, they don’t. It’s like a de-facto world dictatorship we are seeing now.
Our species will not last for more than a blink on this planet if a single person can just decide to destroy the world economy tomorrow if they want. I don’t care whether it’s Obama, Bush or Jesus Christ. The President of The United States should not have this much power. No-one should.
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It’s absolutely mindboggling when you really think about what’s happening for a second.
No-one wants tariffs.
The rest of the world thinks it’s a bad idea, Americans think it’s a bad idea, economists say it will be catastrophic, republicans didn’t ask for it, even the republican party (albeit secretly) thinks this is a bad idea and would never have proposed this if it wasn’t for Trump.
It’s purely Trumps idea. It’s purely his own personal experiment that the entire world now has to participate in. 1 consciousness and its contents, inflicting its dumb idea onto the other 8 billion consciousnesses.
It would be different if republicans actually wanted this. But no, they don’t. It’s like a de-facto world dictatorship we are seeing now.
Our species will not last for more than a blink on this planet if a single person can just decide to destroy the world economy tomorrow if they want. I don’t care whether it’s Obama, Bush or Sam Harris. The President of The United States should not have this much power. No-one should.
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It’s not just one man. The Republcians in the legislature can reign in Trump any day they want to. They have been choosing not to.
A majority of American voters voted for this. None of this is a surprise.
It’s not just one man.
Peter Navarro wrote the section of Project 2025 on tariffs. This. Was. Always. The. Plan.
But no one wanted to listen, so here we are.
https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_CHAPTER-26.pdf
https://think.ing.com/articles/heres-whats-going-to-happen-on-april-2/
Let me be clear, this is not just one man destroying the economy. That’s absolving every Republican in congress and the senate of their duty to stop him, as well as every single one of his advisors. In America we’re supposed to have checks and balances. Instead, we threw that out there. McConnell, Paul, Murkowski, and Collins were willing to go against Trump on the tariffs, probably to test the water for other Republicans opposing the incredibly stupid idea. Those that did not vote against the tariffs are every bit as responsible as Trump is. They aren’t just ‘letting’ him do it. They’re helping him do it.
Because MAGA Republicans are pure evil and most of America is pure dumb.
Surely the stickers, signs, and paddles will make him rethink his actions.
>How the fuck are we letting 1 man destroy the world economy?
It’s all explained here:
>[The United States Constitution]
GOP leadership are cowards, and conservative partisan voters are morons. Persuadable voters in the middle tend to be low information, and voted for Trump because of inflation despite there being zero reason to think inflation would’ve been better had he won in 2020, and every reason to think it’d get worse with his policy agenda in 2024.
No one wants to be the first, or last, to die because of this asshole. Everyone is waiting for someone else to do it
Trump said he was going to do this during his campaign. This was known. Do not absolve Republicans and voters who knowingly voted for this.
Republicans can easily stop this like the senate did with Canada Tariffs.
Rand Paul (thought I have some disagreements) is right, one man shouldn’t dictate trade, it should be congressional power to tariff a nation.
It’s not the world economy. It’s the US economy. Granted, it’s the biggest economy in the world and the rest of us are feeling the pain. But we’re figuring out pretty quickly that when it comes down to it, we don’t actually need you that badly.
Once you guys finally decide you’ve had enough, figure out how to get rid of him and future proof your system of governance so that your entire country doesn’t get hijacked by a cabal of fascist imbeciles again, we may let you have a seat at the table again, but don’t flatter yourselves that you’ll be invited back in any leadership capacity for a very long time.
I’m calling and emailing all my reps daily to tell them to stop the tariffs. Please do the same, esp if you’re in a red state like I am.
Can we steelman the argument in favor of trump, though? I didn’t want him to win and I don’t like him, but I’m genuinely curious about the arguments in defense of his tariff war. At a basic level, it’s good to have negotiation leverage to get other nations to use their trade practices and incentivize Americans to buy American stuff instead of buying from our adversaries and whatnot.
There are a lot of products that we just don’t make in america, though, and that can be seen as a reason not to do the tariffs but it can also be justification for the tariffs.
On the other hand, the ups and downs of the stock market are probably creating opportunities for wealthy people to get wealthier.
Is anyone knowledgeable enough about this stuff to help me understand both sides of the argument better?
It’s all Republicans, not Trump. We have checks and balances, but the GOP isn’t using them.
I really admire Robert Reich. He recently had a very kind article about his friend Alan Simpson, a republican senator who passed away about the republican party supporting Trump.
Jan 6th probably didn’t help either. And Trump pardoned jan 6th terrorists.
https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/in-loving-memory-of-my-very-dear?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=javf5
This is what Robert Reich said Alan Simpson told him
“When Trump first ran for president in 2016, I asked Alan why he thought more Republicans weren’t speaking out against Trump. “They’re scared,” he said.
“Scared of Trump?“
“No,” he said, lowering his voice. “They’re scared of the kind of people Trump is attracting and what he’s bringing out in them.”
“You mean, they’re scared of being physically harmed?”
“Friend, it only takes one nutcase.”
Jan 6 showed a legal way forward for dealing with this kind of situation.
So stepping back from the obvious very painful consequences of these ill thought-out Trump Administration actions:
For decades the American people and people all around the world have been complaining that the existing world order hasn’t been working. That it leaves to many people behind and leads to death, destruction and sorrow far to often. We have all demanded change based on our own individual ideologies.
But the type of change that could disrupt the existing world order and set the world on a different trajectory will always be inherently and deeply painful to everyone and it will carry a lot of risk over which any analyst could pick at.
If there is one thing this debacle with Donald Trump is showing us is that the world is not ready to put their money were their mouth is. We talk a good game about wanting drastic change but if/when it comes will we be ready for the pain it will cause?
I know the easy rebuttal to my inquiry will be “If it was a good upstanding Liberal making the changes; and not this authoritarian orange turd ….”
But would that really matter? If this good upstanding Liberal started to make the drastic changes that are needed; the immediate effect will be a hit to the economy (which is designed to work under the current system); and every econmist and their mother are going to be complaining; every one buying eggs are going to be complaining; and every politician who is worried about their jobs are going to be complaining.
Is the reason we never get any real change is because we really don’t want it; no mater what we might actually say about it.
It’s not a man, it’s a party. The entire Republican Party is at fault. They are a death cult that should be excommunicated with all the gusto we employed against the Communist party in the 1950s.
As a non-US person I freely admit my lack of knowledge of how the US government functions, and my question is:
How comes, out of every single action Trump has done since he came to power, not once have I heard the phrase “….and this passed Congress” or “the Senate approved….”
The president appears to have more concentrated power vested in him than the prime ministers of Canada or Britain could hope to wield. Why are there (apparently) absolutely no checks and balances on the kinds of things Trump has been able to do so far?
Then don’t, what are you going to do to stop it?
It’s really quite remarkable…
You have a malignant narcissist elected to the presidency in 2016. The first term he does plenty of damage but is at least somewhat constrained by those around him. He loses the election in 2020 largely due to his disastrous response to a once-in-a-century pandemic and then claims he didn’t lose (despite the fact that everyone knows he did) than incites an unprecedented assault on our government on January 6, 2021. There’s immediate condemnation of this but, in short order, he turns this insurrection into an asset by claiming victimhood. He begins running for president again and Americans (largely) forget everything he did before–the clear incompetence, the narcissism, the authoritarian/anti-democratic intent, the stupidity (injecting bleach!)–and elect him in 2024, mostly because they seem to believe he will bring prices down. He gets into office and surrounds himself with sycophants who have to claim he’s the smartest man in the room at all times or else they will lose their job, institutes a broad tariff plan that literally EVERY economist–left, right and center (as well as all those sycophants, btw)–know is a very bad idea. The markets respond accordingly, countries retaliate accordingly, prices begin to rise, and we are clearly heading for a major recession, if not worse. Meanwhile the Republicans in congress have ceded their power to him (out of fear and cowardice) and nobody does anything. Literally pretending all is fine while they allow an obvious buffoon and malignant narcissist to drive our country into the ground.
Seriously, if you were writing a novel with this plot your editor would say it’s way too unrealistic.
I don’t understand why it’s not being challenged in the courts. Trump does not have the authority to just make tariffs – taxes – except in cases of a security threat. You could argue a security threat from Mexico, and extremely implausibly Canada, and more plausibly China – but the whole world? It’s quite ridiculous that no one has slapped this down.
The stupidest half of the country gets to vote just like the smartest half.
The republicans have formed a coalition of the most vile morons in America. They won. This is what they wanted.
We can’t stop it. Elect democrats if you want something different.
One man isn’t. The voters are. Hold them accountable.
complacency and complicity – that’s how.
That one man unfortunately has over 77 million people backing him.
A plurality of voters either wanted this or were too stupid to actually realize what would happen. They are responsible for this and everything that happens afterward. We all tried to warn them in every way we possibly could.
As far as stopping him now, after the fact, what do you suggest?
Pretty sure this belongs in “Ask a Conservative.”
“let” implies you have the power to stop him.
Trump is elected president, and despite your assertion that Republicans don’t want this, well, they love Trump and won’t turn against him, so Trump effectively has approval from his party
Trump is just whoring carnival barker.
This is the Tech Bro billionaires doing a hostile take-over of our government. Thier goal is absolute control over everything and everyone, not just the government, or to destroy that which they cannot control.
Thier goal is absolute monarchy and neo-feudal corporate city states. The Project 2025 “play book” is Yarvin’s Dark Enlightement
They believe that they are superior beings.
It would only take 1 man to end this nightmare. Not advocating anything, just a thought…
Trillions of dollars wiped out with the swipe of a marker…
We aren’t, and it isn’t one man. It’s conservatives and their centuries long war to keep an oppressive upper class intact. They just dropped the mask and pretenses this time and decided to accelerate the march towards fascism
it is not one man. The congress has control of this they have abdicated it to Trump. They could take it back anytime they want. The Senate has already passed the bill. The Dems have filled paper work to bring this to a vote in 7 days And it would pass!… so what did the house do?
The house has made today last until the end of the session…that’s right they want you to think they can change the 24 day.
>If Tomorrow Never Comes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib71HRznJd0
It’s not 1 man, it’s the entire institution of the Republican Party from Congress to the corrupt Supreme Court which the GOP has packed over the course of the last 40 years.
The protests are tomorrow.
I will be there.
Will you?
Presidential systems are elective dictatorships, regardless of what any constitution says about restrictions on their power.
If you have one person who controls all of the enforcement power of the state, that person effectively is the state except to the extent they can be swiftly removed from office or have their subordinates disciplined by someone outside the executive chain of command.
Presidents until now have just seen it as prudent to humor Congress and the courts to avoid to help bolster support for their proposals with the public. Now that the legitimacy of both is in shambles, they have little reason to.
The Republicans want this.MAGA wants this. So it’s not just one man.
How? This country is deeply ignorant. We have people, still have people, thinking both parties are the same. People in bum fuck counties voting against their interests and paying the price with layoffs. Folks who think they’re above politics and/or find the most bullshit excuse to not vote because that’s what so called critical thinkers like themselves do.
This didn’t happen in a vacuum. It was series of progressive steps fueled for years by the ignorance and arrogance of the American people. That’s how one guy gets into a position to fuck it all up.
49% of voters voted for him. 100% of Republican legislators are supporting him.
77,303,568 people destroyed your economy.
The only solution to this problem is the one we can’t talk about and everyone is afraid to try.
>Let’s talk about who can stop Trump’s tariffs….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qvrzFfORvQ
Because civilized!!
I just keep hoping someone is gonna do the thing.
[ Removed by Reddit ]
It is down, but year over year still way up. Look at 5 years? Zoom out dudes. Destroyed is so sensational, pull yourselves together.
This was inevitable. In a way I’m glad its happening with Trump. It would be extremely frightening if someone did what Trump did but have the tact not to surprise people or make people attention. It highlights the problems with our global economy, that has been festering for awhile, but also makes it so bad/extreme that even layman people sees whats going on.
The culmination of globalization and free trade agreement set this economic situation up. COVID showed us a preview of this. So many countries abandoned or stopped considering domestic production which created a fundamental vulnerability.
It won’t destroy the world economy. There are plenty of other countries those outside of the US can trade with who do not impose massive tariffs.
> No-one wants tariffs.
That’s where you’re wrong. Trump owns the GOP. What he dictates is what the party believes. He has North Korean levels of influence over what the party believes.
He doesn’t give a shit about the future of the GOP, unlike neocons like Ben Shapiro who’ve been carrying water for him until these tariffs. But even the neocons are powerless to pressure Trump, as he knows the party will never stop him the only truly effective way – impeachment in the House and conviction in the Senate. If they didn’t do it for J6, there’s 0% chance they’d do it for anything else.
He doesn’t give a shit about the future of America. He has an extremely fragile ego mixed with a delusionally-rigid view of the world. It’s why his entire admin is one big sycophantic safespace. He cares about his legacy more than actually helping anyone, which is why he does stuff like “Gulf of America.” His sycophants will say it’s epic. His detractors will say it’s stupid. What he cares about, though, is seeing official maps influenced by his decision.
He also doesn’t have to worry about running for reelection again.
All of the incentives in this structure are built for an extreme narcissist like him to run rampant with zero accountability. The people put him and the party he unilaterally controls into power. He doesn’t care about governing (passing laws), as he’s only operating with executive orders, so he doesn’t care if D’s or R’s control Congress.
Honestly, Tariffs aren’t inherently bad. It’s an economic tool like any other. All countries use them to some extent and it can be powerful when used on very specific goods from specific countries to result in a protectionist policy for US products that are largely sold within the US. I think that’s what people that support the tariffs generally think is happening. Of course in truth, Trumps across the board massive tariffs for basically every trade partner has the surgical precision of a sledgehammer. The US economy is essentially the patient receiving the treatment with said tool.
>It would be different if republicans actually wanted this. But no, they don’t.
Republicans in Congress have the power to stop him, but no, they don’t. It would be different if they actually did stop him, but it looks like they want this.
Because the people chose him. They decided that since the system was not working for them then they don’t want it to work at all.
It’s like that line from “The Dark Knight”:
“Some people just want to watch the world burn.”
If you want to understand what’s going on, go to @theallinpod on X and watch Chamaths Three Takeaways
It’s a minute long, can’t post here due to policy blocking X links
Letting him?
He was elected to do it.
He said he would do it and his supporters ate it up. And he still hasn’t hit the stock market declines of his first term yet. I can only assume that this what the voters wanted.
At this point, destruction of the economy should be a basic expectation whenever voting Republican.
Because to Trump supporters, it doesn’t matter at all whatsoever how much negative consequences Trump causes, as long as any liberals find it offensive, even if it is something like Trump ruining the world economy (when Trump supporters swore that Trump, somehow, would “make it better” even though there is no evidence we were anywhere near close to a recession like we had in 2008), the Trump supporters are okay with it.
Literally the ONLY thing Trump supporters care about is Trump trolling people (and the Trump supporters will ignore if Trump trolls them, his supporters).
“The President of The United States should not have this much power. No-one should.” True, but as long as Trump can be the biggest fattest troll of all time, his supporters would love it if Trump was literally a king. They would gladly support the idea of Trump, who would be in his middle eighties (with his obesity and heart disease and documented family history of dementia) having a third term.
Democrats are neutered and most non-maga Republicans will tolerate it because they put party ahead of country and they also choose not to put Trump in check because they see how popular he is with his mentally challenged supporters, who make up a staggering large portion of the country and have the modern day in the Idiocracy that it is.
We’re not letting him do anything.
The people who are in position to stop him (Republicans) won’t.
Because the GOP base will vote for them no matter what they do.
See Chris Murphy’s explanation.
It’s. Not. About. The. Economy.
It’s. About. Distroying. Our. Democracy.
I think the plan is to let him and his dum ideas flame out in front of everybody because anything less will be a conspiracy of some sort.
Sadly, the under- or mis-informed cult members are hard to convince with words or actions or morality lessons, even if the tenents are central to their religion … they’re stuck in a rut of brainwashing and can’t clamber out without the whole scene walloping them into their butts.
It’s unfortunate because everyone has to get hit worse, wait patiently and just take it until it’s over. It’s like any privileged white male in your life. They just get drunk, blather and bloat all about and it’s a storm to be weathered until it passes.
Because Americans voted for it.
It was every single person who voted for him that did this. We fought against it. We can protest, but at the end of the day it’s going to need to be a politician who does something. We just have to convince them to do it.
Why are you asking us, lol?
But the MAGAs keep cheering him like he’s the second coming of Jeebus. They still think he’s doing a hell of a job.
The Republicans seem to have ceded their constitutional authority to 47. The whole world sees he has no clothes. Except for Congressional Republicans and MAGA.
He couldn’t do it by himself.
Why are you asking us?
I just realized he has only been president for 3 months. No. LESS THAN THREE MONTHS. And he’s already done this much damage.