What was the point of “Liberation Day” then? Piss off the whole world for a week before backing off and focusing largely on China? Could that not have been achieved from the jump?
I am beyond a novice in trade/tariff talk but it just seems like 4D chess when checkers would suffice.
Here's how I see it, ymmv.
If the quote utee94 posted is indeed what's happening (let's face it, you can never be 100% sure until after the fact with Trump), then this ultimately went in the direction I and many others were hoping, but weren't sure about, because it didn't match Trump's rhetoric.
Where it appears to be headed: Trump wanted other countries to start doing business with us differently, so instead of calling them up and telling them what needs to happen, he shocked their system to get them moving in a hurry.
What he kept saying: Basically that he loves tariffs, they're an inherent good, and maybe it just doesn't matter how nice other countries are willing to play with us, he *hearts* tariffs and they're here to stay. Worth noting is that there's video of him expounding on the benefits of tariffs for literally decades, so I can't blame anyone for being worried that maybe he was just ushering in The Age of Tariff Doom.
Why I suspect he did it that way: Not because he's an idiot or because he gets off on giving us all heart attacks. But because if he told us what his end-game was, then everybody would know his end game, and the threat of tariffs would've been utterly ineffective. If you're an EU leader or the president of Taiwan or whatever, you might be inclined to play hardball, at least for longer, if you know he's telling his own people he doesn't really mean it. I
suspect--I don't know--he got pretty much exactly what he wanted out of this. I remain 15% nervous because he really does have a lot of quotes through the years about how great tariffs are. But the Sec. Treasury Bessent has given some tells in the last week, and most of all one of Trump's kids via a tweet, for as much as he knows what he's talking about, that made me think it was probably a negotiating ploy and hopefully not a permanent move.
Re: China.....I actually do think Trump wants to tariff the living hell out of them, or anything else he can think of to screw them over. Long before he ever ran for president, I remember him talking crap about China. Those might not go away. Dunno.
All that said, there was one benefit for me. My wife kept showing me clips of Ben Shapiro's head exploding about all the tariff stuff, which was hilarious. He's a pretty high strung guy anyway with a funny voice to start off with. Watching him go apoplectic during this whole thing was entertaining.
