Trump Tariffs: A Real Circus

Trump II, the digital Caligula has not clarified the purpose of his excessive tariffs.  Is it to raise revenue or a negotiating tactic?  Does the Trump budget need that $6 million over ten years to extend and improve tax cuts for billionaires?  My wise friend wrote:

This whole tariff business is all about shifting the blame and the tax offset from the elite. Trump just tweeted from his bully pulpit all of this is because Asia has been taking advantage of us.  And they should have done what HE told them. I wonder If he is trying his best to make it difficult for people of the Asian cultures to live here in the same way the War of Terror made it difficult for people of Middle East Heritage, i.e. put the target on someone else's back. 

Meanwhile, the elite are backing off with Stanley Druckenmiller adamantly opposing high tariffs and supporting lower ones (@ 10%). Well Stanley sometimes there's no exit from a TRUMP purchase, you know private markets and all.

Bill Ackman throws his vitriol on Howard Lutnick telling the world he loves financial havoc because Howard owns a bond FIRM. Oh, how the strong grow weak through a declining P and L, shrinking AUM and the spinning blade of leverage. How's that song? Hush now Billy don't you cry, daddy's going to buy you a CAR load of SPY.

Everything that's happening today is the result of the bailouts and the monetization of the entire United States of America. The layer of interest expense on every industry and sector goes into prices at the expense of labor. Financial engineering . This affects the pricing of the entitlements.  Stanley Druckenmiller and his ilk point to as the downfall of sustaining the social contract.. 

How convenient to point to these things that keep middle to lower income families sustainable. I guess they did not realize the federal budget sent money to the states to help the workers at Walmart, subsidize the low wages with food stamps and health care? 

The transfer of wealth to the financial sector is a direct result of this layer. a WRAP FEE on America. Meanwhile there's no way in Hell we are going to get rid of the IRS and tax receipts and substitute tariff income, unless we abandon the 50% of the population Trump says he's going to save? Good luck with that.

Trump scolded citizens concerned about their disappearing retirement account.  He did so from his 18 hole golf trip.

Trump II ravaged Trump I for not taking this action in his first term with his "should have been done decades ago" rant.

The confusion over revenue vs. negotiation seems to have been purposefully generated by the Trump team.  

Red Team megadonor Ken Langone joined fellow billionaires Ackman and Druckenmiller in opposing Trump's excessive tariffs.  CNBC reported Langone:

"..called the 46% import duties on Vietnam “bullshit” and describing the 34% tariff rate on China as “too aggressive, too soon.”  

“I don’t understand the goddamn formula.  I believe [Trump’s] been poorly advised by his advisers about this trade situation — and the formula they’re applying."

Langone should know Trump does not have advisors as that requires listening.  The Donarch has staff that are supposed to execute his savage whims to a "T"rump.

Update 4-9-25:  Trump paused his "reciprocating saw tariffs" for 90 days for every country except China. 

Treasury Chief Scott Bessent tilted toward the negotiating tactic side.

Bessent said he was not calling it a "trade war." He also said "it's about bad actors," and that China is "the biggest source of the U.S. trade problems."

 Update 4-11-25:  Blackstone's Jon Gray warned:

"fluctuating markets could expose the unintended consequences of counterparty risks and leverage in the financial system"

Sounds like spring 2008 when Carlyle Capital Corporation collapsed under the weight of heavy leverage and Bear Stearns imploded due to high leverage and lack of liquidity (when short term loans used to finance operations completely dried up).

Credit and lots of it is required for companies to build new high tech, automated factories in the U.S.  Company stock is one possible funding source.  Volatility hurts the predictability of equity to add manufacturing capacity.  

When the big money boys no longer trust each other to honor their debts, things seize up.  Are high tariffs the equivalent of an economic pussy grab?  They are both shocking and appalling.

Update 4-14-25:   Trump's byzantine tariff plan/non-plan shocked the economic world into shambles, after which Trump said "I know what I'm doing" when he clearly does not.  Even The Apprentice staff had to reverse engineer Donald's inaccurate decisions.

Update 4-23-25:  A young man from China understands how U.S. firms, many of them PEU owned, sent jobs to China while avoiding paying their fair share of taxes.  His video is getting widespread play.