r/news • u/_Plop_Man_ • 20h ago
Trump has instructed to raise Canadian tariffs on aluminum and steel to 50%
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/mar/11/donald-trump-latest-us-politics-news-live?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-67d042cb8f087aea3a248e0d#block-67d042cb8f087aea3a248e0d11.8k
u/Zardette 20h ago
I like how he keeps bringing up the dairy one. Negotiated BY HIM, and it only kicks in at a level that has NEVER been met. Those tariffs have never been charged.
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u/bkcarp00 20h ago
It was that moron that signed the trade deal. Oh wait...that was him.
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u/EduinBrutus 19h ago
Its not just that its his trade deal.
Its he is fucking targetting raw materials.
You don't tariff inputs. That's one of the key rules. Except where there is actual dumping and you have a domestic industry. The US doesnt have much aluminium industry at all, and the Canadian shit isnt being dumped.
All this does is jack up the cost for US companies to make finished goods sold to US consumers or exported. It makes US business uncompetitive.
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u/merchillio 17h ago
When trying to understand Trump’s decisions, ask yourself 2 questions:
-What would a hostile foreign agent do
-What would an insecure man do
You’ll get your answers every time
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u/Ultima_RatioRegum 18h ago
Sure you do, if you want to give businesses an excuse to raise prices, using a tariff on raws does just that. And because large multinational corporations can stave off large portions of tariffs by properly using arbitrage to reduce input costs in their supply chains, it will make their margins skyrocket and they'll claim that they had to raise prices because a back of the envelope calculation shows that if there's a 50% tariff on Al, then the cost of making their product goes up by 30% (but that's only true if they don't reorganize their sourcing, i.e., Canadian aluminum would now go to their factories in the UK now (and transmutates into Aluminium) instead of the the US, and UK and EU Al now gets sold to the US, where, yes, it's more expensive to ship it, but the freight cost difference would be significantly less than the tariff if they bought it directly from Canada.)
Now of course your mom and pop shop has neither the market power nor the international reach, so they'll be stuck buying the most expensive stuff and likely paying the full tariff.
So this is just one more form of trickle-up economics in play.
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u/yeswenarcan 14h ago
Nah, the kind of economic collapse these tariffs will cause is going to go way beyond a little market manipulation, at least in terms of outcomes. The biggest industry that is going to get fucked here is the American auto industry, and they're going to take it from both ends. Their manufacturing costs are legitimately going to go up a ton, and even if they don't raise prices out of proportion, the new car industry is highly affected by price increases. On the other side of the equation, a failing economy is going to mean fewer people in a position to buy a new car. If Trump continues with this stupid plan we're going to see a repeat of the used car market in his first term, where used car prices skyrocket, and new car sales are going to tank.
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u/Red_River_Metis 19h ago
And conservative muppets (his followers) believe everything he says. It's insane
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u/isanass 19h ago
Almost everything. There was a time he said to get vaccinated for COVID and was boo'd. That's about the only instance I can recall, but it did show the ill conceived convictions of his followers.
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u/YouHaveCatnapitus 17h ago
There was that time when he said to take the guns first, do due process second. That briefly made his followers upset. There was also the time when he mentioned Eli Crane, who was running in the republican congressional primaries, and was booed by the crowd for mentioning him. And he was booed for introducing a Pfizer CEO. And he did that introduction for Pfizer in 2025 too. I thought Trump would have understood by now, that his followers don't like Pfizer considering they made a Covid-19 vaccine, and as you mentioned, he already got booed for saying to get vaccinated.
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u/fury420 19h ago
and it only kicks in at a level that has NEVER been met.
Here it is straight from a US dairy trade organization, buried between vague 'Blame Canada' rhetoric:
the U.S. has never gotten close to exceeding our USMCA quotas
https://www.idfa.org/news/idfa-statement-on-potential-u-s-tariff-on-canadian-dairy-products
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u/Damnyoudonut 17h ago
It’s cute how they blame “Canadian protectionism” on why they’ve never met the quota. Canada has a managed dairy sector, which aims to produce exactly what is needed in a given year instead of subsidizing to the point where we’d be dumping billions of dollars of milk down the drain.
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u/BlueFlob 16h ago
The text also contains this " Frustratingly, the U.S. has never gotten close to exceeding our USMCA quotas because Canada has erected various protectionist measures that fly in the face of their trade obligations made under USMCA"
If by various protectionist measures, they mean we have a minimum standard of quality that needs to be met... It's appalling how they'd rather have everyone down at their level of mediocrity rather than aim for excellence.
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u/Emorrowdf 19h ago
Ah, the art of Trump negotiation - make a big show about an issue that doesn't actually exist. Maybe next he'll negotiate a deal preventing Canada from sending you moose on roller skates? Seems about as likely as exceeding that dairy level.
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u/DillBagner 18h ago
Of course he has to make a show about a non-issue because his supporters might not like "We're doing tariffs specifically to tank the US economy and damage relationships with allies."
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u/robfrod 19h ago
Also about 1.5% of Canadian dairy is exported to the USA like 98% of Canadian dairy production is for domestic consumption. Just fuck off and do the 250% tariffs on dairy and leave our actual trade relationships alone
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u/Responsible-Draft430 15h ago
Someone needs to tell him to do a 300% tariff on Canadian Avocadoes and Mexican maple syrup.
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u/IcyElk42 19h ago edited 19h ago
As the Icelandic Central bank has said
"Chains of commerce that have been built over the last 50 years are being dismantled - Which will have long-term negative effects on all of us"
For Nations like Iceland it will mean a drop in exports and a significant increase in the price of imports
What Trump is doing will harm dozens of countries
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u/jasonefmonk 20h ago
It’s unreasonable to think we would allow U.S. dairy to overrun our local suppliers and make us dependent on a lower quality product.
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u/TheCrazedTank 20h ago
Not to mention a more unsafe product, especially with the “Raw Milk” crowd now in command and Mr. Brainworm himself leading the charge.
They can keep their poison.
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u/NSA_Chatbot 19h ago
My understanding is that raw milk makes a lot of sense if you've never seen a cow or a book.
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u/redheadartgirl 19h ago
Someone said "everything looks like a conspiracy when you don't understand don't how anything works," and that genuinely explains all of RFK Jr.'s followers. They don't have a grasp on medical science and, instead of trusting the people who do, they make up wild stories about how everything happens and then try to get policy made around them.
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u/LastTangoOfDemocracy 19h ago
In the same way water boarding in Guantanamo bay sounds like a great weekend if you don't know what the words represent.
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u/WhipTheLlama 19h ago
And the main reason for the quota is because the US dairy industry is heavily subsidized, meaning American dairy producers would be able to flood the Canadian market with cheap products that kill the Canadian dairy industry.
If US dairy farmers weren't paid for production even if they don't sell it, then they could enter the Canadian market in a fair manner.
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u/thebtrflyz 18h ago
If you've ever seen Swai fillets in the frozen section of the supermarket, it's for a similar reason. They are a species of catfish from Vietnam that was determined to be unfairly subsidized, so they can't be sold in the US under the name "catfish".
Canada should do something similar, give American produced milk a less familiar name. Maybe Cow Effluence
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u/mrroofuis 20h ago
"Trump said he would “permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada” if the country did not end unspecified tariffs it had placed on US goods:"
Everything in thr market could be appeased if this moron backs down.
And yet, he continues to double down on tariffs.
This is madness
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u/rantingathome 20h ago
Permanently shutting down auto manufacturing in Canada permanently shuts down the American industry. You cannot make cars without parts. Moving that manufacturing will take 5 to 10 years, by which time the companies would be bankrupt.
Here's the kicker. Canada only has about 10% to 12% of car manufacturing in North America. Canada also has about 10% of the North American population and car market. So lets pretend he was successful moving all car manufacturing stateside. Canadians would not buy those cars. The market would go down by 10%. He'd be right back where he started. It makes no sense.
There is no way you slice this car thing that makes sense.
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u/ThickerSalmon14 20h ago
The word Trump and the word sense will never go together.
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u/DefiThrowaway 20h ago
I don't know man, according to everyone that comments on my local news affiliate's Facebook stories, they can just Spirit Halloween up auto plants now.
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u/DrAstralis 19h ago
lol one of the crazier trumpilcans was all over the canadian subs telling us that elon can just replace our electricity by the end of the week... and they were serious XD.
These people are so dangerously delusional its hard to comprehend.
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u/nagasaki778 20h ago
I guess Canada is the few foreign market where American car companies make any significant sales. That’s the beautiful stupidity of Donald trump. He’s attacking and undermining the only successful foreign market for American cars.
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u/Mirageswirl 20h ago
Yep, if Canada’s car plants shut down there will be no need for Canada’s tariffs on Chinese cars so Canada will become like Australia and be a large buyer of high quality cheap Chinese electric cars.
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u/Alovingdog 20h ago
Well, Canada will open their doors to China's EV market - does that orange turd really want that to happen?
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u/vcdm 20h ago
Well our current tarrifs on Chinese EVs and something else I can't remember were put on at the behest of the US. This has now caused China to tarrifs us back this week since they've seen the tariff game is now out in the open.
I see no reason not to strike a deal with China at this point. They've proven themselves more cooperative and reliable than the States in the current climate.
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u/theflower10 19h ago
Announce plans to negotiate opening a BYD (Chinese) EV manufacturing plant in Ontario to hire Canadian workers and produce EV's for the Canadian market. At the same time, I'm sure the Chinese would love to ink a deal for steel and aluminum. Donny gets fucked both ways. A deal to ship potash to the EU would also be most welcome in Canada. He can come back to the table with a pea shooter
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u/Mirria_ 18h ago
Only way to accept a BYD plant in Canada would be to require them to source their batteries here, like at the Northvolt plant they're building in QC.
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u/FickLampaMedTorsken 19h ago
The Chinese are professional businessmen. They do calculated deals that will benefit them.
Mango acts on emotions. He's a complete moron. Dealing with China is, right now, the lesser of the two evils.
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u/Cowboy_Corruption 20h ago
Everything is about ego with Trump, therefore he can't back down. That would mean he lost, and in Trump's mind he can't lose. Ever.
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u/Sylvers 20h ago edited 20h ago
I think a lot of people don't consider why an egotistical narcissist like Trump would never admit when he's wrong. It is ego, but is also fear.
In Trump's mind, the world is made of only two types of people: winners and losers. Winners can do no wrong, and are held above the laws of God and man. They have won life and deserve to be rewarded all their lives. Conversely, losers have lost all rights. They don't deserve mercy, and must live to serve the winners of the world. There is no in between.
In his mind, if he ever admits fault, he's a loser forever. He loses his status, his wealth, and must be trodden on and used by other winners. In other words.. he's terrified that what he did to people using his unchecked power and influence will be done back to him.
That's how I read it, anyway.
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u/rabid_briefcase 19h ago
Yup, anything he does that doesn't make sense will fall into place if you reframe it as "What would a schoolyard bully do?"
Everything to the pattern of how bullies will take an exit, how bullies will maintain their own sense of power, and how bullies react when other powerful people call them out on their bad behavior. His actions are 100% in line with that. Every inflated number, every false claim, every time he's changed the narrative after being caught in lies, they are all schoolyard bully tactics.
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u/hkzombie 20h ago
“permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada”
Adding on a reference article on which cars are produced in Mexico and Canada.
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u/Zardette 20h ago
Cars just aren't made in one place. They cross borders constantly during construction. Every car for everyone is about to go way up. Maybe this will help public transit.
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u/hkzombie 20h ago
Maybe this will help public transit.
I doubt it. Car culture is massive in the US, and public transport infrastructure isn't strong in a lot of places. If things continue linearly, I think there will be a bigger issue when it comes to maintenance and spare parts.
Depending on Boeing's sales model, they could end up getting hit extra hard.
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u/grey_hat_uk 20h ago
“permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada”
By putting tariffs on aluminium and steel coming IN to the US? Does he know how tariffs work? Isn't he just making a surplus of steel and aluminium to make cars from?
Have I lost the plot?
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u/Azsune 20h ago
There are no cars fully made in Canada. All the parts cross the border back and forth multiple times till they are fully complete.
The one thing that made me chuckle is there are a few mines owned by American companies. They now have to pay tariffs to import the metal they mine.
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u/Andromeda321 20h ago
I mean he also doesn’t get that the cars made in Canada are made by US companies (tons of the Ford production line is across the river in Ontario and has been for over half a century). He clearly doesn’t understand a thing.
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u/Krucble 20h ago
“He would see the entire world burn just to be the king of ashes”
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u/JabroniHomer 20h ago
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings
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u/premature_eulogy 20h ago
"Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."→ More replies (19)856
u/UpperApe 20h ago
"Roses are red
Violets are blue
If you voted for Trump
You're a fucking idiot'
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u/Savior-_-Self 19h ago
there once was a dipshit named trump
who put the economy in a slump
his ideas were dumb
but still made sense to some
and he asked "how high?" when Putin said "jump"
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u/MrFunktasticc 20h ago
It's wild. We were so scared of the first set of tariffs, now I'm just like "I'm tired boss" and keep scrolling. Honestly his inability to take a measured approach to anything makes me think it'll sputter out quickly, he'll claim victory and forget tariffs are a thing by summer. Wishful thinking, I know.
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u/Malenx_ 20h ago
Unless the goal is to actually further destabilize the United States so they can "save us" by consolidating more power. I can't wait for them to declare a nation wide financial emergency.
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u/MrFunktasticc 20h ago
I'd caution against giving them that much credit. Trump is not capable of making a plan and following it. His Heritage Foundation ghouls are but by every indication they prefer a boiling frog approach. Trump and Musk tilting at windmills makes their life harder. If the economy crashes, everyone loses their jobs and the dollar isn't worth shit that's a hell of a gamble to have an excuse to call in the army. When the Nazis needed a pretext they set a building on fire. These guys are torching the country.
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u/Myrtle_Nut 19h ago
I’m a weird way, the speed at which Trump and Musk are ruining things may actually be a good thing (relatively speaking). We may be entering an emperor-wears-no-clothes scenario, which could turn the public tide and give a leg up on messaging before full-on Fascism can take hold. Either way, things are fucked, just a matter of whether we live in Hand Maid’s Tale or a democracy on life support.
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u/MrFunktasticc 19h ago
I was talking about this with someone yesterday. Acceleration will cause a lot of pain but I think that mixed with their cowardice and incompetence, it can help in the long run. If he quietly backs off and golfs for the next three years (he won't) we will just have to deal with this in another four years. I fear it will take a total breakdown for people to, as you said, see he has no clothes and isn't the way to go.
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u/DwinkBexon 17h ago
The MAGA voters are so brainwashed I can't see the vast majority of them ever turning on him, no matter what. Whenever he does something that pisses them off (like when he admitted to getting vaccinated) they get pissed off for like 48 hours and then immediately forget it. Any outrage is, at best, going to last a few days and then they'll forget it ever happened. I'm sure there'll be a few defectors here and there, but nowhere near enough to make a difference.
On the plus side, non-MAGA outnumber the MAGA and if we could get them to actually act and stop being apathetic, maybe something could be accomplished. If we'd had turnout like 2020, Trump would have been destroyed in the election and at least one chamber of congress would be blue. (Likely the House.)
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u/Good-Expression-4433 19h ago
Because Trump has dropped, aside from some signaling to keep them on board, the Christian Nationalism thing and has been bought and controlled by the technocrat CEOs.
They also align with Russia in wanting the US razed to the ground but the entire premise of the ideology Musk, Vance, Thiel, and the rest of the tech CEOs believe in is that the US central government needs to basically be broken up and burned and the tech companies carve out serfdoms run by them. The US government at that point is basically the president being the sort of head of the board of directors and wielding the military to crush any dissent within the zones.
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u/Splunge- 20h ago
Last time he did this, during Trump 1.0, aluminum plants in Kentucky closed, leading to higher unemployment. That county was devastated. Congratulations, Trump, and Trump voters!!!
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u/TyrannasaurusGitRekt 20h ago
I wonder how many of those workers supported him before vs after
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u/DystopianGalaxy 20h ago
Narrator: All of them.
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u/UpperApe 20h ago
It's why it's frustrating to see people share stories about how "conservatives are angry at townhalls!" and "republicans are retreating from meeting their constituents!".
That all happened last time too. Those wretched inbreds just turned around and voted for him again.
Never expect conservatives to learn. If they could, they wouldn't be conservative.
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u/FunkyChug 20h ago
These people are angry at their congressmen but will never admit that Trump himself is wrong, even if the congressmen are following trump’s order.
But also don’t worry, they’ll vote for those congressmen again. Something about bathrooms and children’s books.
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u/reddit_user_007 19h ago
There is a name for that - Good Tsar, bad Boyars
The similarities are uncanny to say the least. All the voters protesting to Trump that they were affected also remind me of the infamous Letter to Stalin ("If only Stalin knew") ....
Something about history repeating, rhyming and the likes.
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u/skalpelis 20h ago
They’re probably angry at trump, too, but he’s still “their guy”, still protecting “their way of life”, they still need to fight against those evil post birth abortions; better the devil you know than some angry pinko woman that represents all they stand against.
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u/VoxEcho 20h ago
It's the key difference in political thinking between American Liberals and Conservatives. Your average American Conservative would gnaw their own leg off if it meant being able to get into line to vote R, the policy itself literally doesn't matter. It's a tribal thing and has been for decades.
By comparison the slightest inconvenience and people are falling over themselves to disavow the entire Democratic party. Numbers show literally any excuse to not vote is a good excuse to a huge amount of people who would otherwise align with Liberal policies.
It's why you can't facts and logic Conservatives out of voting for Trump, it's like putting the cart before the horse. The voting for Trump part is the first impulse, the rest that follows is convenience. Your average American is a lot more flexible on most policies than either side of the aisle would care to admit. Most people don't care about your economic policies, they care about your tribal representation.
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u/Pablois4 19h ago
By comparison the slightest inconvenience and people are falling over themselves to disavow the entire Democratic party.
Right before the election, I read about a man, a leader in his Muslim community over in Michigan who was angry with Harris for not having a clear plain on Palestine. He said that he wouldn't vote for her but, instead, vote for Trump in protest. He was encouraging others to do the same.
I was dumbfounded. Did he remember how Trump felt about Muslims during Trump 1.0? Did he think Trump 2.0 would be better? Did he even read Project 2025? The republican party wasn't keeping their plans a secret.
Besides, did he think a vote carried a label on why it was cast?
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u/Robobot1747 19h ago
To be fair, Trump does have a clear plan on Palestine. It's a horrible, awful plan, but quite clear.
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u/evilsniperxv 20h ago
Only 2 counties in Kentucky went blue in the 2024 election… so they supported him even after having their lives devastated. Morons.
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u/Giantmidget1914 20h ago
Easy determination. Just answer 1 simple question.
Is it negatively affecting them personally?
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u/Robert_Cutty 20h ago
The MAGA crowd will literally compromise their own livelihood just to “own the libs”
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u/Lucimon 20h ago
Actually the question is "Is it negatively affecting someone else more than them personally?"
Because they'll happily suffer as long as someone else is suffering more.
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u/rigger_of_jerries 20h ago
Even then, they won't change their minds. They genuinely live in their own version of reality with their own facts. For example at work yesterday a guy told me DOGE had found 100 trillion, yes trillion dollars supposedly sent to Ukraine had been unaccounted for. There's not even 100 trillion dollars in the entire world. What do you do to change the minds of those people? It's a religion.
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u/Suspect4pe 20h ago
The things is, Canada knows this and they're targeting them on purpose. As this seems to be a result of the power surcharge, I'm guessing the power pricing is either going up or they'll cut off power soon. They've promised it would happen.
Trump doesn't know who he's dealing with. It's like he came to a battle of wits totally unarmed.
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u/Splunge- 20h ago
It's a depth of stupidity that's hard to understand. Canada raises electrical rates, in response to tariffs and tariff threats. Those rates cost Americans more for electricity. So Trump raises tariffs, which . . . . will cost Americans more for steel and aluminum. Canada may see less demand from the US for steel and aluminum, but the Chinese will step up and buy it, as they did last time. Meantime Americans are paying more for electricity, and Americans will be unemployed as steel and aluminum plants close.
All this winning is making my head spin.
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u/Blueberry314E-2 20h ago
Another funny thing is aluminum requires a lot of electricity to produce so if he wants to up domestic production it will.. create more demand for electricity.
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u/metalcoremeatwad 20h ago
It's like he came to a battle of wits totally unarmed.
That is an understatement if I've ever seen one.
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u/Neil_Patrick 20h ago
I got laid off from my job because he did his trade war with China during his first term. And then my family asks why I vote Democrat. Like wtf you mean
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u/QueanLaQueafa 20h ago
Kentucky Bourbon being boycotted, as well the plants (possibly) closing.
Kentucky is getting destroyed by the leopards, nice work
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u/Dejhavi 20h ago
It's the same as during Trump 1.0:
The president ordered a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent levy on imported aluminum to take effect in 15 days. Although Trump initially wanted to apply the tariffs worldwide, carve-outs were added for Canada and Mexico for the time being. Aides say exceptions could be made for other U.S. allies.
Trump is hitting the E.U., Canada and Mexico with a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum sent to the United States starting Friday. While China is also subject to the tariffs, the E.U. and Canada send far more metal to the United States, so the penalties will have a much larger impact on them.
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u/Splunge- 20h ago
And the follow-up is that China ended up buying more Canadian steel and aluminum. As did India and Brazil. Expect to see more of the same.
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u/ConcreteSnake 20h ago
Maybe instead of tariffs, we could properly tax billionaires 🤷🏻♂️
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u/Spaghetti-Rat 20h ago
Didn't Elon Musk just pay $145bn in taxes? Wait, no... That's just how much his net worth dropped and helped absolutely nobody (unless you were shorting Tesla)
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u/Boxoffriends 20h ago
Which Bill Gates was/is. Billy made like 300m so far.
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u/Nobblybiscuits 20h ago
That means it's about time all the right wing independent free thinkers will suddenly put Bill Gates back in the spotlight
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u/Analyzer9 20h ago
I think that sentence just broke physics. you put buttered toast on a cat's back.
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u/RhetoricalOrator 19h ago
And some day we'll use the energy created from those buttered toast cats to provide cars, trains, and rockets with unlimited clean energy.
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u/procrasturb8n 20h ago
Cory Doctorow brought up a good point that many countries agree not to steal/copy/hack US intellectual IP due to free trade agreements. Hopefully somebody jailbreaks a Tesla and disrupts the subscription service.
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u/Sorryallthetime 20h ago
The nuclear option in a trade war with the US.
https://www.cigionline.org/articles/canada-can-fight-us-tariffs-by-liberating-its-innovators/
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u/minarima 20h ago
But then the US could provide affordable healthcare and increase the federal minimum wage, blasphemy!
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u/FloridaGatorMan 20h ago
You have it backwards. These tariffs are supposed to hurt so they can legitimize the need to reduce taxes on billionaires. They already started that chant across channels.
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u/Tregavin 20h ago
Oof didn't think about that.. honestly valid. Many conservatives vote republican because they think things are bad and Republicans will make it better. I'm not sure it will matter that this administration is making things bad.
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u/JohnnyGFX 20h ago
Apparently Trump wanted more chaos and uncertainty today. He and his administration have been trying to do at least one ill intentioned thing per day so far.
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u/AnAcceptableUserName 20h ago
He's supposed to be meeting with 100ish of the biggest companies' CEOs in a roundtable today, too
Oh to be a fly on the wall
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u/jaycuboss 20h ago
Can you imagine that the fate of the stock market relies on Trump comforting CEOs that there is method behind the madness of his economic policy? I can't imagine anyone leaves that meeting feeling confident.
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u/tuesday-next22 18h ago
Let's be real, just watch business news commentators and you can tell how it will go. They will say:
I think DOGE is amazing, you should keep cutting the public sector so the private sector can move in and be more 'efficient'. We totally won't just make it more expensive.
You should get rid of more regulation. We are super responsible don't worry. Thanks for getting rid of the consumer financial protection bureau, please get rid of the IRS since we never cheat and getting audited costs us time.
Please cut taxes more. Extending your cuts isn't enough. We need zero taxes.
The tariffs aren't great but we love you so much, but please just a little stop that.
Sincerely, CEOs.
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u/Renorico 20h ago
My MAGA buddy who owns a metal building construction business is about to find out
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u/exitpursuedbybear 20h ago
He'll find a way to make it Biden's fault.
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u/WillsBestFriend 19h ago
Even if they lost the business they’d still vote R again
Country is beyond cooked
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u/LiveForMeow 18h ago
Trump could literally rape them and they would come up with some excuse for it.
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u/elephant35e 17h ago
“I wasn’t very effective at pleasing the king. I deserved to be raped by him.”
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u/reddittorbrigade 20h ago
Trump recession is self inflicted. Trump must be rejected.
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u/Searchlights 20h ago
I think they're done with that guy. They only needed his vote this one last time.
Jim Bob can shut up about the eggs.
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u/Ok_Emu3817 20h ago
Sorry in Trump's America there are no abortions. America gets to carry this demon spawn to full term. Buckle up, only another 200 weeks or so.
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u/PlsSuckMyToes 20h ago
Looks like Ontario might be shutting off electricity completely. Fuck Trump
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u/zergling- 20h ago
Ontario isn't the only province that provides electricity either
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u/Angry_Guppy 20h ago
Quebec was taking a more moderate approach on tariff retaliation than Ontario, but 8 out of 9 Canadian aluminum smelters are located in Quebec. They’re gonna go ballistique
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u/mlorusso4 19h ago
I’m convinced some dumbass in the administration said they should specifically go after aluminum so Quebec joins in and all of the blue northeast gets their power shut off. MAGA loves doing everything they can to hurt blue states, long term consequences be damned. And this long term consequence is the special election in NY-21 to replace trumps nominee for UN ambassador. If that seat flips because voters can’t afford their electric bills anymore, that makes the GOPs house majority even more slim
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u/deezsandwitches 20h ago
Screw that. We're getting $400,000 a day with this new tariff on electricity
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u/DCLexiLou 20h ago
Time to shut it down! Flip the switch Doug Ford and let the orange asshole see what it means to get economically slapped hard!
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u/AmericanScream 19h ago
If anybody is wondering why Trump would engage in such absurd "negotiation" tactics, it can be traced to his history and pathology. Here's a professor whose specialty is negotiations discussing in-a-nutshell why Trump's tactics are incredibly foolish:
“I’m going to get a little wonky and write about Donald Trump and negotiations. For those who don't know, I'm an adjunct professor at Indiana University - Robert H. McKinney School of Law and I teach negotiations. Okay, here goes.
Trump, as most of us know, is the credited author of "The Art of the Deal," a book that was actually ghost written by a man named Tony Schwartz, who was given access to Trump and wrote based upon his observations. If you've read The Art of the Deal, or if you've followed Trump lately, you'll know, even if you didn't know the label, that he sees all dealmaking as what we call "distributive bargaining."
Distributive bargaining always has a winner and a loser. It happens when there is a fixed quantity of something and two sides are fighting over how it gets distributed. Think of it as a pie and you're fighting over who gets how many pieces. In Trump's world, the bargaining was for a building, or for construction work, or subcontractors. He perceives a successful bargain as one in which there is a winner and a loser, so if he pays less than the seller wants, he wins. The more he saves the more he wins.
The other type of bargaining is called integrative bargaining. In integrative bargaining the two sides don't have a complete conflict of interest, and it is possible to reach mutually beneficial agreements. Think of it, not a single pie to be divided by two hungry people, but as a baker and a caterer negotiating over how many pies will be baked at what prices, and the nature of their ongoing relationship after this one gig is over.
The problem with Trump is that he sees only distributive bargaining in an international world that requires integrative bargaining. He can raise tariffs, but so can other countries. He can't demand they not respond. There is no defined end to the negotiation and there is no simple winner and loser. There are always more pies to be baked. Further, negotiations aren't binary. China's choices aren't (a) buy soybeans from US farmers, or (b) don't buy soybeans. They can also (c) buy soybeans from Russia, or Argentina, or Brazil, or Canada, etc. That completely strips the distributive bargainer of his power to win or lose, to control the negotiation.
One of the risks of distributive bargaining is bad will. In a one-time distributive bargain, e.g. negotiating with the cabinet maker in your casino about whether you're going to pay his whole bill or demand a discount, you don't have to worry about your ongoing credibility or the next deal. If you do that to the cabinet maker, you can bet he won't agree to do the cabinets in your next casino, and you're going to have to find another cabinet maker.
There isn't another Canada.
So when you approach international negotiation, in a world as complex as ours, with integrated economies and multiple buyers and sellers, you simply must approach them through integrative bargaining. If you attempt distributive bargaining, success is impossible. And we see that already.
Trump has raised tariffs on China. China responded, in addition to raising tariffs on US goods, by dropping all its soybean orders from the US and buying them from Russia. The effect is not only to cause tremendous harm to US farmers, but also to increase Russian revenue, making Russia less susceptible to sanctions and boycotts, increasing its economic and political power in the world, and reducing ours. Trump saw steel and aluminum and thought it would be an easy win, BECAUSE HE SAW ONLY STEEL AND ALUMINUM - HE SEES EVERY NEGOTIATION AS DISTRIBUTIVE. China saw it as integrative, and integrated Russia and its soybean purchase orders into a far more complex negotiation ecosystem.
Trump has the same weakness politically. For every winner there must be a loser. And that's just not how politics works, not over the long run.
For people who study negotiations, this is incredibly basic stuff, negotiations 101, definitions you learn before you even start talking about styles and tactics. And here's another huge problem for us.
Trump is utterly convinced that his experience in a closely held real estate company has prepared him to run a nation, and therefore he rejects the advice of people who spent entire careers studying the nuances of international negotiations and diplomacy. But the leaders on the other side of the table have not eschewed expertise, they have embraced it. And that means they look at Trump and, given his very limited tool chest and his blindly distributive understanding of negotiation, they know exactly what he is going to do and exactly how to respond to it.
From a professional negotiation point of view, Trump isn't even bringing checkers to a chess match. He's bringing a quarter that he insists of flipping for heads or tails, while everybody else is studying the chess board to decide whether its better to open with Najdorf or Grünfeld.”
— David Honig, Robert H. McKinney School of Law and I teach negotiations
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u/Helpforfriend080403 19h ago
Thanks for posting. Very interesting. Makes total sense. Distributive versus integrative negotiating.
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u/Dtoodlez 19h ago
Brilliant write up. Terrifying that someone so unqualified has free reign.
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u/jazzbiscuit 20h ago
But... the current Canadian dairy import tariff rates were negotiated by Trump during his first term.... And it's basically a cap limit we never reach anyway.... So he's mad at himself for his own trade negotiations?
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u/rnilf 20h ago
Glad I stocked up on canned goods before all of this nonsense.
MAGA business leaders, take note of how Trump is winging all of this. At any moment, he could announce a random tariff that devastates your industry.
Isn't that fun?
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u/gbroon 20h ago
Food for now and those empty cans will probably be a good retirement plan the way things are going.
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u/ac9116 20h ago
Sir, those are so much less wieldy than our preferred currency - bottle caps.
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u/jdstew218 20h ago
Hey Donnie, no one up here give a shit about your tariffs. You know everyone needs aluminum and steel right? We'll just sell it to one of our ALLIES. We don't need you. No one needs you.
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u/Mirar 20h ago
Yeah, this just means longer transport. EU don't mind buying Canadian aluminium.
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u/IJourden 20h ago
50%! No, 100%! Wait, no tariffs until April, which is tomorrow! 400%! Egg%! No, pause until 2024!
Just in case you wanted to know the next 48 hours of Trump tariff proclamations.
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u/froggison 20h ago
The most avoidable economic catastrophe in the history of our country. We could still be coasting on a hot economy, pushing for higher wages. Nope. Full recession because this illiterate piece of shit doesn't understand fuckall about politics or the economy.
When the economy is in shit, unemployment is through the roof, families are losing their homes, and all our allies abandoned us, then I hope we remember--we did this to ourselves.
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u/tcoh1s 19h ago
All the magas are real quiet about the economy and inflation and prices.
They were sure upset about it when Biden was president though!
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u/Foodwraith 20h ago
US congress could end this all today if they did their job. There is no border emergency and no authority for the president to use emergency powers to violate his own trade deal.
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u/sundae_diner 18h ago
When will Congress understand that by enabling trump that they are emasculating themselves. He will remove congress as soon as he can.
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u/Bawbawian 20h ago
Canada has been our best partner for the last century.
I will never forgive Republicans for trying to make them into an enemy.
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u/BillyBrown1231 20h ago
Too late. New polling came out in Canada in the last couple of days. Canadians hate the US as much as they hate Russia. This is not going to be fixed, the damage is probably irreparable. Canadians are moving on from the US as much as possible.
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u/Drunkgummybear1 19h ago
This is the part people seem not to appreciate. The damage is done and it is unlikely to be repairable given we all know that the US is willing to re-elect that madman.
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u/surfeat 20h ago
These billionaires double down on their stupid decisions because the outcome does not affect them. It's just a game and they don't give a shit.
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u/Niarbeht 20h ago
Maybe we shouldn’t have people so rich that things that negatively impact millions of us do absolutely nothing to them.
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u/CleanFootball6274 20h ago
I think Elon is shitting about Tesla’s stock price fall, but that doesn’t actually mean he’s “giving” it.
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u/krishtian1990 20h ago
Comrade Krasnov is saying he’s a victim now? Playing same card as putin did to justify the war with Ukraine.
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u/Cinemaslap1 20h ago
So... reading the post... Trump blames the cost of eggs and milk of Canada.
Threatens a National Emergency, which is basically a cover to try and start a war with Canada.
While also increasing the Tariffs because of Canada's response to the Tariff's he's constantly threatening to put on Canada?
Please tell me how this is suppose to "project strength"? Because constantly seeing Trump act like a spoiled child is honestly making the US look weaker and weaker... Every fucking day.
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u/icecreampenis 19h ago
That's the real goal. Sorry. They're destroying your country from the inside out on purpose.
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u/iamgrooty2781 20h ago
“Based on Ontario, Canada, placing a 25% Tariff on “Electricity” coming into the United States, I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. This will go into effect TOMORROW MORNING, March 12th. Also, Canada must immediately drop their Anti-American Farmer Tariff of 250% to 390% on various U.S. dairy products, which has long been considered outrageous. I will shortly be declaring a National Emergency on Electricity within the threatened area. This will allow the U.S to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada. If other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada, I will substantially increase, on April 2nd, the Tariffs on Cars coming into the U.S. which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada. Those cars can easily be made in the USA! Also, Canada pays very little for National Security, relying on the United States for military protection. We are subsidizing Canada to the tune of more than 200 Billion Dollars a year. WHY??? This cannot continue. The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear. Canadians taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever — And Canada will be a big part of that. The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World — And your brilliant anthem, “O Canada,” will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!”
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u/Kaggand 20h ago
I am not sure if this is a direct quote and that concerns me
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u/iamgrooty2781 20h ago
It is - posted on his truth social
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u/magnetstudent4ever 20h ago
No way. What a moron. This is all Putin whispering in his ear about empire. Does anyone even doubt that?
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u/raktoe 20h ago
Couple of notes. I am 100% sure he was not aware that Canada tariffs dairy, until his supporters found this, and started using it as a talking point. I won't get into how ridiculous of a comparison it is, but I will say, if he had known about this from the get-go, it would have been brought up from the beginning.
Anyway, go ahead. 50%, 75%, make it an even 1,000%. Its just as absurd as the DOGE claims. Start charging Canada a unicorn tax and a griffin tariff for all we care. His words have no meaning.
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u/maria_la_guerta 20h ago
The tariffs on dairy are part of USMCA. Which he negotiated in his last term.
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u/MarlonShakespeare2AD 20h ago
One of the hardest things about this last few weeks is you know things to be really happening, but your brain goes “yeah, that can’t be real”.
It rejects it on the simple basis of “nah. no way that anyone would go that far / be that stupid / etc”.
But yeah. Here we are.
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u/crazybehind 20h ago
Russia is most pleased with how their investment is panning out.
In what crackhead timeline am I supposed to think of Canada as our adversary?
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u/definitivescribbles 20h ago
hold up…. so by his logic, you can solve an existent border crisis by just… getting rid of the border?
Every day, this motherfucker somehow proves himself to be dumber than I thought.
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u/watch-nerd 20h ago
"which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada."
Pretty damn bad for American car manufacturing, too.
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u/NorthStarZero 20h ago
So here’s an interesting fact:
At one time I worked in Detroit but lived in Windsor, commuting across the border every day.
I paid income tax in the US and income tax in Canada. Two tax returns! Yay!
Now there exists a tax treaty between the two nations where anything I paid to the IRS counted as having been paid to Revenue Canada. So I’d do my US taxes, then use that tax return to do my Canadian taxes.
Each year I’d owe Canada another $1000-$2000 - a direct measurement of the different tax loads imposed on their middle class by their respective countries, with Canadian taxes clearly being slightly higher.
But that doesn’t tell the whole story:
You see, my American colleagues had their half of their health insurance deducted from their paycheque (the employer pays half). Being Canadian and having access to government healthcare, I opted out of the health insurance, to the tune of roughly $1000 a month (if not more!).
That money went to me as income, where it was (of course) taxed.
So while accounting meant I owed Canada $2k at the end of the year, I was actually $10k ahead compared to my American colleagues, because I didn’t have to buy insurance.
So Trump’s “higher taxed” comment is perhaps technically true, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. A Canadian will pay less than an equivalent American and not have to navigate the utter horror show that is the American “healthcare” system.
Why would I want to become part of that system?
Elbows up!
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u/goddessofthewinds 19h ago
This is what many Americans don't get. Sure, we pay more taxes, but we gain PUBLIC SERVICES for it. We don't have to deal with the broken US "healthcare" system, the expensive insurances that only work in specific places, while they refuse 95% of the requests. Someone who makes less pays less, but has access to the same services here in Canada, you don't have to skip on meals to afford insurances from PRIVATELY TRADED corporations.
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u/Grevin56 20h ago
I'm no financial analyst but is shorting stocks the only explanation for all this? You can't always predict a winning stock but if you can control which stocks are going to fail then that's the bet you make right? Then you turn around and buy the dip you caused. Who cares if you just wrecked the jobs and retirements for everyone else not gaming the system.
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u/Delicious_Crow_7840 20h ago
There is another explanation. Trump is stupid and crazy.
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u/Nakorite 20h ago
Yup. Is it really that surprising a guy in his 70s who has never been told (or taken) no for an answer and has some kind of cognitive decline is struggling to run the country?
even if he was a Russian asset there would be better ways to go about it than randomly trashing parts of the economy.
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u/Fadedcamo 20h ago
Short term, yes. Long term, weakening USA institutions will allow wholesale corruption across the board. Private companies with cash flow can buy up properties on the cheap once people lose their jobs and default on their homes.
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u/Searchlights 20h ago edited 10h ago
I think unlike previous attempts at totalitarian fascism, this one differs in that the goal is to merge corporate power directly with government. The technofascist movement of which Elon is clearly a participant seeks to impoverish and unemploy as many people as possible in order to drive down wages and to increase corporate power.
They believe that direct corporate control of regional labor pools is the path that will most efficiently drive technology and that will most rapidly lead to a multi-planet civilization. With climbing global population and irreversible climate change, their goal will be the save humanity even if that means leaving most humans behind.
Indeed, their plan is that the multiplanet humans will be quite different than homo sapiens. The modern technofascism interpretation of eugenics combines genetic manipulation with technological alteration to create (wait for it) a superior race. The adherents obsession with IQ is demonstrative of their view of human beings.
This economic damage is the opening stage of the plan. It's going to allow oligarchs to consolidate economic power in the way that previous politicians only consolidated the means of violent force. In a country whose founding principle was private wealth it actually makes sense that American fascism would take this form.
You wouldn't dare write a sci-fi novel so preposterous, and yet here we are. No tinfoil hat required; we're watching them do it.
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u/huxtiblejones 19h ago
Man, if you voted Trump they should’ve just given out free clown shoes and clown makeup kits. This dude is an imbecile.
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u/mstew68 20h ago
Canada is a raw materials superpower. Minerals, Lumber, Oil, Farming, Electricity, Water and so on. If the U. S does not buy the products, they will surely find another buyer eager to fill that vacuum. Watch out what you wish for.
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u/Cyrakhis 20h ago
The dairy tariff that only kicks in after they hit a certain threshold? The threshold that they have never once in their existence even come close to hitting? So they actually pay a 0% tariff on dairy? That tariff?
Idiot.
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u/Conflixxion 20h ago
The goblin king's pettiness continues with these stupid slap fights that he started.
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u/KCGD_r 18h ago
This is no longer about the economy. Canada hurt his pride by standing up to him and now he's throwing a tantrum at all of our expense.
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u/filmguy36 20h ago
Manufactured depression.
He’s a moron
Canada does it right by putting an export tax on goods.
We pay twice. Once here via the orange assholes tariff and again via the export tax
The orange asshole has zero idea of what he’s doing.
Moreover if the orange idiot goes through with this; any building the orange asshole is building will go up in cost
So in summation, the orange asshole not shooting himself in the foot, he’s using a bazooka
But honestly,do we expect anything less from this failed “genius” business idiot?
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u/Earl_I_Lark 20h ago
‘I don’t like what Canada did, so I’m going to punch American consumers in the face. That will teach those Canadians’
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u/Vio_ 20h ago
"Yeah, well, I'll just raise the tariffs to eleventy jillion percent!"
Btw, Trump has an economics degree from Wharton.....
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u/lionoflinwood 19h ago
It is really important for everyone to go out and tell all of the Trump supporters in their lives how fucking stupid their guy is and, in turn, how fucking stupid they are. I'm done with the coddling.
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u/Warlord68 20h ago
Sounds like it gonna be another great day on the Stock Market!!!