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Ryuu96 on 02 February 2025
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LurkerJ said:
haxxiy said:

That's a common belief in MAGAland. The slightly smarter ones try to cope mentioning it could lead to lower taxes or aid American manufacturing. Never mind that you'd need universal 200% import tariffs to replace income taxes.

Trump tried tariffs in his first term, I was actually supportive of them, and came to his defence repeatedly, including on this website, because I believe China being the manufacturer of the world is a security threat. "bringing manufacturing back." was a solid campaign platform to run on. However, none of those tariffs made a dent.

To be fair, Biden kept those tariffs, doubled, tripled and quadrupled some of them. But coupled them with solid infrastructure investment programs and subsidies that actually made the difference and help manufacturing boom again.

Meanwhile, Trump 2024 ran on repealing the chips act because it was terrible for America... and the MAGA cheered. Wat. At least the goal was clear with the first round of tariffs during his first term, but I'm not sure what's going on right now, it doesn't seem like anyone is able to explain to me

Yeah, a lot would still agree that China being the manufacturer of the world is a security threat or something undesirable. Unfortunately, Trump was a dumbass who China ran circles around, resulting in what was widely considered a failure of policy during Trump's term and a bailout for American farmers. China outplayed Trump with ease so it's no surprise China is happy to see Trump's return, not because they're friends but because China knows how stupid Trump is and they can play him to their advantage

But yeah, I don't think many care about the tariffs on China, it's just that Trump is too stupid to make them effective. It's the tariffs on allies for completely stupid and made up reasons that most are upset about. I wonder when the braindead tariffs on Taiwan are coming, I can't wait to see the stock market after those come into force, I imagine he has a lot of people desperately trying to speak him out of those ones.

China Vows Measures Against US Tariffs, Threatens WTO Action - Bloomberg

China is taking a slightly different approach than Canada/Mexico for now, I imagine their angle here is to try to turn America against the WTO and further increase China's own global soft power/influence, to look like the adults in the room who respect international order. When America left WHO, China immediately dived in to say they respect WHO and praised it. Feels like calculated moves to increase China's own global soft power while America intends on eroding its own.

Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 02 February 2025