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just claimed has for many years been “loot pillaged & raped” by other nations. More proof he has no idea what it means to be raped.

called the announcement “our declaration of economic independence” & described it as one of the most important moments in American history.

Trump said his policies would generate “trillions and trillions of dollars to reduce our taxes & pay down our national debt.”

Again, the opposite is true according to most financial experts.

claims that many countries have targeted the w/ “non-monetary barriers,” like currency manipulation, subsidies, exorbitant taxes & theft of intellectual property.

Trump specifically talked about the ’s value-added tax, which he has long despised. rates are common outside of the United States, & the U.S. is actually an outlier for not having one.

singled out other countries for their on US cars, but important to remember his admin already announced 25% tariffs on cars & auto parts imported into the US. Those go into effect just after midnight Thurs.

Trump is mentioning tariffs that other countries put on American products, but not the high tariffs that the US charges on certain products from other countries. For example, he mentioned a 10% tariff that Europe puts on American vehicles.

The 25% on cars & car parts that is talking about goes into effect just after midnight. The union is a strong supporter of those , but auto companies & economists have said they will lead to significantly higher car & could even slow US auto production.

Trump said his tariffs offered an example of his admin “standing up for our great farmers & ranchers.” Reminder: in his first term, he had to bail farmers out after they were hurt by his w/ .

talks about the deficits the US has amassed w/other countries and says, “We’re really not taking it anymore.” The trade deficit is the difference between what a country & what it . The has long imported more goods than it exports.

Economists don’t agree will really lower the US trade deficit.


nytimes.com/2025/02/05/us/poli

The trade deficit, which is the total value of what the United States imports minus its exports, reflects how the U.S. appetite for foreign goods now far outpaces what U.S. factories make and send abroad.
The New York Times · Trump Prepares to Take On the US Trade Deficit, a Familiar NemesisBy Ana Swanson

is cherry picking a lot of high that foreign countries charge on American products. But the US has high tariffs on certain products too, like sugar, footwear, apparel & peanuts, a legacy of efforts to protect those industries. The United States charges 350% tariffs on tobacco from many countries, 260% tariffs on Irish butter substitutes & 197% tariffs on Chinese stainless steel kitchenware, for example.

claims that the price have gone down under his watch after an outbreak of . But economists warn that of the kind that Trump is pursuing are likely to lead to much higher for . The big question is whether that will translate to persistently higher .

again criticizes the creation of the in the US in 1913, arguing that it’s a mystery why the nation ever instituted one. American policymakers embraced the income tax for 2 reasons: to collect more taxes from the & to pay for a growing federal govt.

Conversly, disproportionately burden Americans, who spend more of their earnings on goods that tariffs make more expensive.

calling the deficit a “national emergency” that threatens US , lays out his *legal* argument for his actions.

“They rip us off,”Trump says of the , announcing a 20% on the 27-nation bloc.

Trump holds a chart showing reciprocal tariff rates for US trading partners & says he will charge half of that much? There is no explanation for the calculations that he is using to justify the . Likely because they’re arbitrary revenge tactics.

Many of these tariff rates seem much higher than some economists & policymakers had been expecting.

says the US will calculate a tariff rate for other countries based on & “other forms of cheating” — whatever that means.

He says will face a 34% tariff, while the will be 20%. will be 24% & 26%.

says he will charge the a 10% . Remarkable, since the US runs a surplus w/Britain, it’s a close ally & the country has been trying to negotiate a trade deal w/Trump.

Trump says he will also establish a “universal baseline tariff” of 10% that will apply to ALL COUNTRIES, in ADDITION to the numbers he’s already announced. That means a country like China will face a 44% tariff on top of the 20% already imposed.

That is also on top of ’s other that China will also face, including 25% tariffs on autos & 25% tariffs on metals.

Trump says to foreign countries, “If you want your tariff rate to be zero, then you build your product right here in America.”

“They’ve got some very bad things going on in South Africa,” goes on a based tangent when he outlines the reciprocal tariff against that nation. Trump & have repeatedly amplified false claims about the persecution of Afrikaners in , & made an exception to his refugee ban to screen Afrikaners for status. Trump included in his tangent a typical criticism of the for how it covers South Africa.

claims that experts have been wrong about , & his first-term & that they will be wrong again about his current trade actions. 🙄

Futures on the S&P 500, which allow investors to trade when exchanges are not officially open, began to tumble after Trump started outlining the tariff rates. The index had ended the day higher, but futures are now down more than 1%.

Nonilex

touts manufacturing jobs that have been created since his 2nd term began as well as the fact that some consumer prices have eased. The issue is that neither of those very modest trends are likely to continue w/these , economists say. A new report released this week showed that manufacturing activity contracted in March & businesses in that sector are now expecting much slower growth & higher prices.

said & other are starting to come down, & that his policies are bringing down . In fact, inflation has picked up in the first weeks of his term, & economists almost universally expect to further drive up prices.

“There’s a reason this came at 4 PM ET, with closed,” said Jorn Fleck, senior director with the Europe Center at the Atlantic Council.

He said the on the , his area of expertise, is a “very high number” that will be painful for & on both sides of the Atlantic.

People had been expecting to announce high , but these numbers are stunning. In addition to a 10% tariff on ALL COUNTRIES, dozens of other countries face extra tariffs between 10 & 50%. That will force some manufacturing back into the US, but will also definitely raise costs for American & & incite on many fronts.

The White House clarified that yes, as I posted earlier in this 🧵, the tariff numbers in the charts held up include BOTH reciprocal levies & the 10% baseline. So will face a 10% reciprocal tariff + a 10% baseline. will face a 24% reciprocal tariff, + the 10% baseline. Etc.

Disgusting: The majority of the nations listed for “reciprocal” on the 8-pg document distributed to reporters by the admin are , economies. They include some of the world’s poorest nations -- , & the -- as well as countries in the throes of , notably .

@Nonilex Trump’s new tariffs are the largest sudden tax increase ever for American consumers and corporations. And, of course, a regressive one.

@Nonilex parties compliant with CUSMA may be exempt.

@Nonilex except for separate tariffs for cars and steel. ( that is still a dumb ass thing to do. As if auto plants can hit the switch overnight).

@Nonilex US sovereign debt is currently 124% of #GDP. When GDP goes down we're going to hit 150%, assuming no further decrease in tax revenues.

@Nonilex Secondary point here #Canada debt/GDP is 75%, #EU is 80% due to more responsible fiscal policy. If you're a business looking to expand which country appears most sustainable. Not to mention the competitive advantage gained from immigration.

@Nonilex The only thing the #US makes is fighter jets, now #Sweden and #UK are competitors.

@Nonilex Trump is not very bright. Instead of measuring the tariffs on US goods imposed by a country, he looks at the balance of trade. It never occurs to him and his minions that poor countries import less from the US because they have less money. Trump assumes that the balance of trade is directly proportional to tariffs and nothing else.

@glennsills @Nonilex balance of trade is a poor indicator & shows how little the little orange man understands economics.

Global recession because the emperor has no clothes & #gop is too gutless to tell him

It would be laughable except for the damage

@SaanichGuy @glennsills @Nonilex assuming our civilization survives future generations will be laughing at us.

@Nonilex some guys looked into how they "calculated" the tariffs number and for some countries they just took (import - export)/import, like in case of VIetnam: (136.6-13.1)/136.6=90.0 and so they put a 90% tariff.

Are they kindergarden kids? Have they heard of words like analysis or complexity? You can't just put number like this without investigating what is being imported and what is being exported and you can't just put a tariff on everything

@Nonilex so, if other countries stablish a baseline+reciprocal, then the US adjusts, then the other country adjusts and we spiral into infinity.

@Nonilex He seems genuinely surprised that other countries play the Uno reverse card though. What a total brick.

@hastur @Nonilex Yep #MAGAts don't understand that most people don't like them.
They live in a white #protestant #christofascist bubble in the old #confederate states.

@Nonilex it won't really force manufacturing back to the US.. but I DO hope it forces the US to HANG THESE STUPID FUCKS before our country is completely destroyed.

@mousey @Nonilex if anything it could do the opposite. Harley Davidson moved to making some motorcycles in Asia. Companies will only move manufacturing IF it’s cheaper. Some may move manufacturing to a cheaper region to save on production costs while charging the same even if the tariffs. Some companies may decide they want competing economies too like Canada, Mexico, or the EU.

@Nonilex #NoTaxationWithoutRepresentation One man, idiot47, just imposed a massive TAX hike on every US citizen without any vote from Congress. Let that sink in.

@Nonilex I was at the grocery store today, picking up things, and then putting them back on the shelf instead of in my cart. Eight dollars for cereal?!?

@kimlockhartga @Nonilex

just like the shortages early in covid dramatically raised food prices, yet kroger's et al just kept the prices up after the shortages were gone, i'm expecting to see all sorts of spikes in consumer good prices blamed on tariffs regardless of reality.