Trump is a maniac with these tariffs and tariff threats.  It is causing havoc in the world economy, which is made up of 8 billion people.  The disruption is mostly behind the scenes, as businesses struggle to predict what their costs and competition will look like in a month from now and a year from now.

It seems like it is a different tariff or tariff threat every day.  We may be getting a 50% tariff on copper.  Brazil is facing stiff tariffs because Trump doesn’t like the political situation there.  Should Brazilian officials have slapped a massive tariff on the United States when Trump was on trial last year?

Trump is now threatening a 100% tariff on Russia if the war in Ukraine doesn’t end in 50 days.  Of course, there are already major sanctions on Russia.  Trump could talk to Putin and promise not to expand NATO any closer to Russia.  Trump could cut off funding to Ukraine.  But no – instead we get more tariffs.  That seems to be Trump’s solution to everything.  He thinks it is a bullying tactic, which it is, but it is a tactic that will deeply cost the American consumer.

This is one of the few promises from his campaign where Trump is delivering.  Unfortunately, it was one of the bad promises, and he is putting it on steroids.  Other than some pardons and a few executive orders, most of Trump’s good promises are out the window.

Dictatorial Power

The left likes to call Trump a dictator.  Trump is doing his best to prove the leftists correct.  The problem with the left here (there are many others) is that they are hypocritical.  They weren’t talking about dictatorial power when Biden and company implemented vaccine mandates or arbitrarily declared student loans to be forgiven.  Even if the Supreme Court did overturn some of it, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t a broad overreach of power.

Harry Browne (quoting Michael Cloud) liked to say that the problem isn’t the abuse of power, it is the power to abuse.

In this case, Trump shouldn’t have the power to arbitrarily hike and lower tariffs on a whim.  The American people deservedly give low ratings to Congress, but it is still generally better when things are done through Congress as opposed to executive decrees.  At least when it goes through Congress there are competing interests and the process takes some time.

With Trump just announcing new tariffs virtually every day, it is a nightmare for business.  It is a joke when Trump defenders say that he is trying to bring back manufacturing.  With these erratic policies, it will do no such thing.

Trump announces a 50% tariff on copper.  Even if it were feasible to mine additional copper in the United States, is some company really going to invest tens of millions of dollars to explore and mine for copper?  You could start your business tomorrow, and who knows how long it will take before you actually get any copper out of the ground.  It might take years.

Meanwhile, Trump could arbitrarily just eliminate the tariffs he just imposed on copper.  You just invested tens of millions of dollars for copper mining in the U.S., and now you have to compete with copper mines throughout the world once again.

It is completely ridiculous that this one person has so much power to disrupt.  Congress should take back its authority to tax.  If Trump doesn’t obey, he should be impeached.  We know that Congress will do no such thing, just as it doesn’t do anything to stop illegally declared wars.

TACO Trump

There is an acronym now to describe Trump’s tariff policies.  It is TACO, or, Trump Always Chickens Out.

The problem with this acronym is that it challenges Trump’s manhood in a bad way.  What if he decides to fight back against this label?  That means he has to not chicken out.  It means he has to follow through with his steep tariffs.

In April, after his stupid “Liberation Day”, we got instant feedback from investors when stocks tanked.  Trump then started to walk back some of his tariffs.  Now, stocks are hitting new all-time highs.  Investors either believe TACO will continue, or they simply just don’t care about tariffs.

We are in an Everything Bubble.  Perhaps these tariffs will speed up the popping of the bubble.  Maybe they will just make life even more miserable for Americans when a recession does hit.

Since March, virtually everything that Trump has done is bad.  Why should we expect him to correct course now?

And to be clear, Trump deserves no credit if he repeals his own authoritarian edicts to impose tariffs.  It is just like he doesn’t deserve any credit for getting a ceasefire in Iran.  No ceasefire would have been necessary if he hadn’t helped start the war there.

Trump has lost the game on foreign policy.  He has lost the game on civil liberties.  He has lost the game on Epstein, which is actually turning some of his base against him.  Now he is going to lose the game on the economy.

He is almost unhinged at this point, and he is so unpredictable, it isn’t good for wealth building.  Trump is doing everything he can to prove the left correct.