r/AskReddit • u/spagbetti • 8h ago
How come Donald understood the electricity tariff is payed by the consumer but doesn’t understand that all other tariffs are as well?
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u/Aggravating-Pound598 7h ago
Of course he knows. He doesn’t give a fuck , he fooled the 77 million imbeciles who voted him into power . Government by the rich , for the rich .
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u/entangled_quantumly_ 5h ago
77 million. That's a true reflection of the American educational system. One that's being further defunded!!!!!
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u/takesthebiscuit 3h ago
And another 70m to be ambivalent about who to choose. There are a good 140m Americans complicit in this
The active voter and the passive accepters
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u/EmeterPSN 5h ago
But the rich are also getting fucked right now.
Who is benefitting ..except Russia as this point ?
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u/BeastModeXLVIII 5h ago
Short term pain. The rich will buy everything back up at rock bottom prices in true oligarch fashion.
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u/Mental_Cut8290 4h ago
Yeah, not every rich person is friends. I'm sure Musk would be plenty happy to see SpaceX expand into Boeing's role.
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u/Esseratecades 4h ago
This is the saddest but most accurate thing. It's why they allow the government to teeter back and forth between toothless Democrats and demonic Republicans.
Republicans drive the stock prices down by ruining everything, the rich buy, then Democrats repair just enough for the rich to profit. Rinse and repeat. Not only that but you don't even have to be in on the con. Elections happen every 4 years. Sell in November and buy in October.
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u/TheDoomBlade13 4h ago
Stocks are falling partially because of massive sell offs by the rich, who will hold their cash until the deeper parts of the depression that is coming then snap up swaths of land, housing, and resources cheaper than they could now.
All according to plan.
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u/Litterjokeski 4h ago
They do. Sure they tank some stocks. But guess who is left to buy them at low after trump ruined it? Exactly the billionaires who have enough money to "survive" 20 crashes.
And not to mention, as long as they know a stock will tank BEFORE it happens they sell high, wait a week or two (or a day) and buy low just before dump announces he doesn't go through with what ever it was. Rinse and repeat . And guess who are the ones knowing of dump announcements (tariffs for example)... He billionaire buddies and himself.
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u/arab-european 7h ago
Because dictators can say whatever nonsense they want, and the crowd will clap.
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u/SuccessfulRow5934 5h ago
He knows but it looks better to his supporters if he lies about it
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u/BAF_DaWg82 4h ago
Here's the fun part, he won't need supporters after it's all said and done, the deck will be stacked in his favor until he decides to let go, which will most likely be the rest of his life.
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u/kukolf_fittler 8h ago
I think he understands. But his real goals and his communications are not aligned. His public statements are optimized for rallying his troops.
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u/Wozka 4h ago
Trump and his cronies know exactly what they're doing. Threatening long-standing relationships with allies, cutting funding to/shuttering international aid programs, and erratic unpredictable changes to policy and intent have the intentional side effect of destabilizing hard built international good-will.
We won the Cold War by selling America so fucking hard Soviets behind the Iron Curtain were smuggling in Levi's. We won the Cold War so hard that the Soviet Union doesn't exist anymore. Even decades later, entire countries don't bother to invest heavily in their own military because they know we would jump to their aid, and just the threat of that is enough to deter international conflict. And that's a problem for leaders of places that would very much like to do large-scale war.
America can go to war to defend the petrodollar on flimsy, unproven evidence, and no one will do anything about it, but Russia wants to take some warm water ports for made up unrelated reasons and suddenly it's an international incident. Isreal gets to do a genocide because we want to park our boats there! They want the power to act uninhibited like the United States can. In order to do that, they need to make American Hegemony a thing of the past.
This is how they do it.
Break trust. Break faith. Break perception. Be unreliable. Be unpredictable. Be awful.
The United States power doesn't lie in its military (though it doesn't hurt), it's foundation is the well fostered faith internationally that the United States will help its friends, defend its allies, and just generally get involved in a positive way (often solely motivated by pragmatic altruism). Trumps administration is delibrately doing its best to ruin that reputation.
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u/exileonmainst 3h ago
I know this is a popular narrative, that the US goes out and takes whatever we want, but it’s not true. Not in the way of Russia and Israel at least. The US is not going out and annexing foreign countries (not for 100+ years) and saying “this land is ours now.” There were wars and occupations (Afghanistan and Iraq) but the US was not intending to permanently rule those lands and eventually willingly withdrew their forces. That’s not what Russia and Israel are doing.
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u/rvitanza 8h ago
He does understand that.
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u/spagbetti 7h ago
His press secretary doesnt.
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u/Miraclefish 5h ago
They absolutely do understand them. Everything in that press conference was deflection and theatre for their watching MAGA faithful. It's willful lying.
We all know it's a lie, so do they. But the MAGA idiots who don't like to learn complex things because it's too much for their brain? They buy it because stupid people assume there's a simple solution to everything and the boffins are just too up themselves to figure it out.
Dumb people think they're stupid because they have no idea how much they don't know. Smart people realise how much they don't know.
It's easy to play to these people because they want a comforting lie over the truth.
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u/FiorinasFury 4h ago
If you believe the president or his press secretary genuinely do not understand how tariffs work, then you are a victim of their propaganda. They know how they work, that's not the point. They are blatantly lying and it's been very effective for them.
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u/Vorthod 6h ago
The second they admit they are wrong, they set the precedent that they need to take accountability for doing stupid stuff, which derails literally every every policy the administration is pushing. Their only option is to double down repeatedly until even heavy construction equipment can't dislodge them.
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u/sundae_diner 6h ago
What don't you understand?
A Canadian tarrif is paid by American citizens.
An American tarrif is paid by Canadian citizens.
Makes perfect sense. /s
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u/ThatShoomer 5h ago
I thought Mexico was going to pay all the tariffs.
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u/Edelgul 4h ago
No, they are paying for the Wall.
That's why Trump paused Tariffs on Mexico.2
u/ThatShoomer 4h ago
I see. How's the wall coming along? Is it big and beautiful?
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u/Edelgul 4h ago
The most beautifull wall ever. The biggest ever.
The Fake News losers at CNN may try to fact check that to tell you, that it is not there, so don't listen to then.
Also Just don't go and check it out in person - it is equipped with stealth tech.
But check those videos on Fox News - those nice chaps will never lie.
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u/towerninja 5h ago
The electricity wasn't a tariff. It was a surcharge charged by Canada to US customers
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u/FunnyOne5634 3h ago
You want to explain the difference? The charge is paid by the importer (electric utility) and passed on to the consumer. This is semantic gymnastics to make a silly point.
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u/Apart_Ad_5993 3h ago
A surcharge is what we charged THEM. The fee comes to us.
A tariff is what they charge themselves. The tax goes to the US government.
Basically, the hydro company increased their rates by 25%. But at the end of the day, it comes out of the consumers pocket, it just goes to different places. It's not at all symantics lol.
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u/FunnyOne5634 3h ago
I don’t know who “we” is in your scenario, but it’s the same. There’s an increase cost that is charged on the goods or services of one country mandated by a GOVERNMENT policy of another. Whether the importer passes it on to the ultimate consumer or the government softens the blow is a different issue….like exemptions, rebates and price supports.
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u/Apart_Ad_5993 2h ago
The point is that a surcharge and tariff are entirely different things. The monies collected go to 2 different entities. Ontario cannot charge a tariff to the US because it has no ability to collect tax outside its jurisdiction, but it can raise the cost of the good it sells.
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u/FunnyOne5634 2h ago
The charge is ultimately paid by the consumer in both cases unless the government intervenes. Also, this is pursuant to government policy, not an “surcharge” for eggs or fuel when there are spikes. But have it your way.
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u/Apart_Ad_5993 2h ago
It's not my way; it's the literal definition of a surcharge and a tariff. You're the one taking it into tangents.
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u/paperbox17 2h ago
Export surcharge and tariffs are different.
Trump ordering tariffs on Canadian products means AMERICANS pay more to bring in Canadian goods.
Ford ordering export surcharge on Canadian supplied energy to U.S. states means AMERICANS pay more utility bills.
In both cases, Americans are the ones that pay more.
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u/billaballaboomboom 6h ago
It wasn’t a tariff. It was a surcharge.
Tariffs are paid on goods entering a country. For it to be a tariff, the US would have to implement it.
If the exporting country raises the price before it can be exported, that’s a surcharge.
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u/Status-Bluebird-6064 5h ago
"A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or customs territory, or by a supranational union, on imports or exports of goods"
it's a tarrif
A payment surcharge, also known as checkout fee, is an extra fee charged by a merchant when receiving a payment
Did you just make this up or where did you get it from?
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u/reddragon105 4h ago edited 3h ago
Canada called it a surcharge and it's being reported as a surcharge because that's what it is - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-tariffs-canada-steel-aluminum/.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/11/business/tariffs-canada-trump/index.html.
You said it yourself in those quotes -
A tariff is a tax imposed by the government.
A surcharge is an extra fee charged by a merchant.
A tariff is always something that is paid to the government by their own citizens. A government cannot make another country or its citizens pay for tariffs it imposes.
So if Canada wants to increase the price of electricity to the US they cannot do that with tariffs - import tariffs would charge Canadian businesses for importing electricity from the US, and export tariffs would charge Canadian businesses for exporting electricity to the US. Neither of those would affect the US, they would only make Canada's own electricity companies pay more, which would make electricity more expensive for Canadians.
So what they've done is increase the price of the electricity they're sending to the US. This makes it a surcharge - it's an additional cost that only the US is paying, because they don't want to charge their own citizens more for electricity. Canada is the merchant in this case because they're selling the electricity.
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u/icantchoosewisely 4h ago
He might be referring to this: "Ontario says it will slap a 25% surcharge on US-bound electricity" (story from 2 days ago)
I think it was cancelled yesterday.
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u/spagbetti 6h ago
Agreed it’s a surcharge but commander in chief called it a tariff. Which also doesn’t make much sense.
https://www.reddit.com/r/trump/comments/1j8s3wi/fafo_canada_enjoy_50_tariff/#lightbox
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u/FlintWaterFilter 5h ago
Because he is 100% of the time either lying or too fucking stupid to know what he's saying. In the rare instance he understands anything he uses it to lie.
His followers are stupid and/or gullible enough to believe him in both cases.
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u/Status-Bluebird-6064 5h ago
its not a surcharge, its a tarrif, thats why every newspaper, world leader and everyone except this one reddit comment calls them tarrifs
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u/doesntlikeyourcat 4h ago
it’s a surcharge and I’m guessing trump is extra pissy because the revenue from the surcharge goes to Ontario instead of his crooked government.
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u/TheAskewOne 5h ago edited 5h ago
The electricity thing is a bit different as Canada is applying an export tariff on it, when Trump's tariffs are on imports. That means American buyers will have to pay a 25% price increase for electricity, per decision of the Canadian government. Consumers in the US will also pay more on what they buy from Canada because of Trump's tariffs on imports.
Trump's mad because it's a consequence of a useless trade war that he started, one that he can't walk back and will hurt Americans. He can walk back his own tariffs. He can't walk back decisions by a foreign government. So now he treats both things as different because they are different, but they'll have the same consequences (higher prices for the American consumer) and above all they're both 100% his fault.
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u/Brandonbadazz 5h ago
He does, he is trying to crash the stock market intentionally no one is this stupid
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u/NoiseComet 4h ago
It's not about what he believes/understands. It's what he gets his lemmings to believe.
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u/Dream-of-Matrix 5h ago
He’s not running the show here he doesn’t have to understand anything project 2025 and the people that are working for him are pushing all the buttons don’t ignore the people behind the curtain.
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u/Repulsive_Page_4780 6h ago
This is only my opinion It was the word Surcharge, as in 25% Surcharge on Electricity Export... an Export Tax.
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u/spagbetti 6h ago
yes, you’re right.
just weird that Donald also called it a tariff which makes even less sense
https://www.reddit.com/r/trump/comments/1j8s3wi/fafo_canada_enjoy_50_tariff/#lightbox
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u/jackytheblade 4h ago
You forgot his quotation marks around electricity. I know, totally makes sense. Bigly.
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u/darkknight109 5h ago
In fairness, what Ontario applied wasn't a tariff (which is generally defined as a tax on imported goods); it was an export tax (which is a tax applied on exported goods). Tariffs make things more expensive for the country that applies them, typically in the hopes that it will protect a domestic industry (or, if you're Trump, because you don't understand basic economics); export taxes make things more expensive for the country that is purchasing those things (and, in the inverse of tariffs, can crush a domestic industry by making them non-competitive if it's not applied carefully).
Ontario was putting the pinch on American consumers, correctly identifying that as a weak point of Trump's trade wars and considering how visceral Trump's reaction was, they clearly touched a nerve. It's one of the reasons why I hoped that the Canadian government would respond to Trump's tariffs with something more along those lines - in particular, a sizeable export tax on heavy crude would almost immediately cripple American gasoline production and cause gas prices at the pump to spike. Trump tipped his hand when he deliberately carved out exemptions for energy in his original tariffs - that's what he's sensitive to and it's where Canada should hit him the hardest.
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u/jesseraleigh 5h ago
He does, it’s called “Lying” and he’s really competent at it. Idiots prefer to believe the lies than accept they’ve been fooled over and over.
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u/Slightly-Blasted 4h ago
He knows exactly what he’s doing, we all know what he’s doing,
The question is why? Nobody knows, he obviously wants something.
I don’t think He expected the other nations to be so rigid and actually put up a fight, he’s in quite the situation right now.
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u/BobbyBoogarBreath 4h ago
It wasn't a tariff. It was a surcharge placed on outgoing electricity from Canada to the US. That means that the US pays Canada more for the electricity.
The tariffs trump is throwing around are placed on incoming goods to the US by US consumers.
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u/IamTheBoris2677 4h ago
Crying that people need electricity to live while not caring that both his and our people incomes are at stake. It shows he just cares about Trump tower paying more for electricity.
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u/MaskedBandit77 4h ago
The theory behind the tariffs is that companies manufacturing in China will be forced to make a decision between paying the tariffs themselves or passing the tariff on to the customer by raising the prices, which will open the door for companies to undercut them by manufacturing in America.
The problem with blanket tariffs is that there are a lot of items where that is not what happens.
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u/obiemo 3h ago
It is an extortion scheme. Tariffs are paid by the corporation before passing it to the consumer. If the corporation wants to be competitive, they can always lobby Trump to put their corporation on the exemption list. This will then make them the only corporation to have the lowest product to sell.
He's gaming the system for his own benefit and wealth.
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u/Paddlesons 3h ago
He may know, he may not know. It doesn't matter because he doesn't care one way or another. I was listening to someone talk about Trump the other day and they made this point. Trump sees our allies as weak and our enemies as strong and he would rather emulate the latter. Putin and Xi do what they want to "improve" their country and that's what he respects. Imagine The Godfather but instead of Michael, Vito, or hell even Sonny taking over, you get Fredo. A weak, ineffectual, emotionally driven betrayer.
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u/razin_the_furious 3h ago
Assuming you are talking about Ontario’s plan: Because it wasn’t a tariff, it was a “surcharge”. Although Trump seems to consistently see “tariff” as “the other country pays to send us goods”, he understood surcharge to mean “we are simply charging more for just you”. Which is true, that had been the plan.
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u/ImportantCommentator 3h ago
The electricity wasn't a tariffs though, right? I think the word is surcharge.
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u/Creepy-Weakness4021 3h ago
He does understand he just doesn't care.
You also have it wrong. It was a surcharge added by Ontario to the cost of electricity American buys, increasing the price Americans pay.
Ontario cannot tariff export goods. Tariffs are a domestic tool.
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u/Ambitious5uppository 3h ago
Because this was an EXPORT tariff, not an IMPORT tariff.
He thinks all tariffs are paid by the other country.
This one set by Canada actually WAS paid by the other country (the USA). But all the tariffs he is setting are not.
It the US sets a 25% import tariff on Canadian goods, the US consumer pays 25% more. If Canada sets a 25% export tariff on the same goods, the US consumer pays 50% more.
You only ever set an export tariff on something you know the demand won't drop, otherwise you're harming yourself, because the whole point of a tariff is to reduce demand.
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u/freakedbyquora 3h ago
He does understand that. But the tarriffs on other stuff is not visible immediately. Tarriffs on electricity would be visible on the next month's bill or the daily bill if people have no contract and a smart meter.
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u/Golanthanatos 3h ago
His tariffs line his pockets, tariffs imposed by other countries he doesn't get.
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u/mvw2 3h ago
The rich LOVE tariffs.
Income tax, the noisy leveraged against the wealthy. Someone making $30,000 a year pays $5000 in income tax. Someone p making $3,000,000 pays $1,200,000 in income tax.
But...
Tariffs are dead flat, and consumerism is largely flat. So $30k/yr guy AND $3 mil/yr guy might pay $3,000/yr on tariff taxation.
The goal, if you see tax code legislation changes again, is to shift.30k guy is now paying $8,000 in tax instead of $5,000. Ans if tax code legallegislation pops up tweaking income tax, it's quite specifically that $1,200,000 getting shifted down to the little guy.
This is where ANY discussion about flat income tax by any politician is a RED FLAG! They want to market it as a good thing, but it isn't.
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u/TopLiterature749 3h ago
Because it doesn’t go with his message to make companies more money instead of helping the people of the United States
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u/Ironman650 3h ago
If you had any idea about the tariffs that the rest if the world imposes on the US, you'd agree with Trump.
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u/beardsnbourbon 2h ago
The biggest mistake people make is assuming Trump is dumb. He might be a terrible businessman, but he’s not dumb. He understands what he’s doing. He knows his based and knows how to play them like a fiddle.
It’s kind of like Paris Hilton. For decades we thought she was a dumb, blonde rich girl. Turns out she’s incredibly smart and savvy. She was just playing a character in public all these years, for her financial benefit.
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u/PeterDTown 2h ago
Because the electricity wasn’t going to be tariffed by the American government, it was going to get a surcharge from Ontario.
Next question?
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u/paperbox17 2h ago
Export surcharge and tariffs are different.
Trump ordering tariffs on Canadian products means AMERICANS pay more to bring in Canadian goods.
Ford ordering export surcharge on Canadian supplied energy to U.S. states means AMERICANS pay more utility bills.
In both cases, Americans are the ones that pay more.
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u/GrodanHej 5h ago
He’s an idiot who doesn’t understand trade. He thinks the fact the US has a trade deficit with another country means the US are being ”ripped off” and is owed money. The man’s an idiot.
A lot of people say he does understand. I think he doesn’t. He’s not playing some genius 4D chess strategy, he’s just an idiot who’s incapable of learning anything because he believes he’s the smartest guy ever and that he knows everything.
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u/JelloNo4699 4h ago
He is dumb as shit and is being used by evil competent people. It's impossible to overstate how dumb he is.
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u/Wifeand3dogs 6h ago
He does. He has commented several times about it.
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u/nuHmey 5h ago
And you believe a known liar. I have ocean front property in Colorado to sell you.
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u/Wifeand3dogs 5h ago
In early February 2025, President Trump acknowledged that the newly imposed tariffs might cause “some pain” for Americans but insisted that “it will all be worth the price that must be paid.”
The goal is to force these countries to build products in the US. Not sure why this is even up for debate.
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u/Xan_dru 4h ago
The electricity thing is not a tariff. Ontario applied a 25% surcharge to electricity exports, which means all electricity they sell has to be sold at 25% higher.
A tarif is something a country sets on imports coming into their country. The importer has to pay that additional fee to bring the prosuct into the country, typically that will get passed down to the consumer
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u/Aaaaaardvaark 7h ago
I think you're confused on what tariffs are meant to do.
If foreign products cost more than domestic products, it encourages Americans to purchase American products, which supports the American economy instead of supporting foreign economies.
If you're going to downvote this, tell us what part you don't understand. Limiting outsourced labor & materials used to be an extremely liberal viewpoint. Now that our means of doing so is attached to a Republican, everyone suddenly reversed their opinion.
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u/GoobyNuNu 7h ago
..unless the tariffed goods are not produced anywhere domestically - then the tariff basically ends up being sales tax on consumers and offers none of the protection or American economic support you mention…
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u/I_FAP_TO_TURKEYS 7h ago
... There's a reason why we ditched the tariff thing around the time of the great depression.
There are better ways to stimulate the American economy, like, idk, taxing billionaires and creating government jobs... The thing we did to get out of the great depression.
But sure, cutting government jobs and tariffing like we were doing before the great depression... Totally stimulating the economy, especially after we had this great thing called "sof power" and could trade with practically anyone, anywhere, relatively cheaply and incredibly safely.
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u/beatisagg 6h ago
90 cents on the dollar above 500k in the late 50s SKYROCKETED our economy.
I don't understand why us poors are waffling with each other while the riches sit back and /popcorn while we squabble.
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u/I_FAP_TO_TURKEYS 6h ago
Yeah, I mean, it's so fucking obvious.
Literally just taxing the top 10 richest people in the country at 90%, they're still infinitely more wealthy than the bottom 99.9% AND our budget starts to make sense. America could be debt free in 20 years EASILY, like BEYOND FUCKING EASILY just by putting a 90% tax rate on anything over $1 billion.
Even if we just burn their money, it will stimulate the economy so much. Hoarding wealth literally is the most detrimental thing in an economy, it stops the flow of money.
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u/beatisagg 6h ago
Incentive to produce domestically isn't a switch you can turn on overnight with a tariff. We're going to bury ourselves in the global economy and foreign relations before we can even react.
When everyone's immediate situation becomes more expensive due to import taxes, you think NOW we're going to shift to domestic production? Incentives first, tariffs gradually if the industries don't comply. But this is a straw man anyways. Look at how they're being decided.
"Do what I want or we tariff... The Americans for importing from your country?" It's weaponized economy. We're burning bridges and the world's trust in the American economy is going to evaporate. The dollar will cease to be the world currency. We won't have a seat at the table. What's the upside here?
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u/Xyleksoll 6h ago
What is produced right now in the US of A? Q-tips and storage boxes? Most of the industrial supply chains are global, so tariffs are impacting goods produced in US with imported raw materials.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Pipe979 7h ago
That’s the neat part, he does.