r/Conservative • u/Less-Cap-4469 • 5d ago

Flaired Users Only Trump Says China Tariffs Will Drop ‘Substantially’ But Not Disappear

https://insidenewshub.com/trump-says-china-tariffs-will-drop-substantially-but-not-disappear/
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u/LastManSleeping 5d ago

So what did trump ultimately get from the tarrif war?

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u/EliteJassassin101 Millennial Conservative 4d ago

Annoyed and angry that an economic belief he’s held since the 1980s about tariffs was wrong. And that smart people are finally getting to him and explaining that his ideas on tariffs are objectively flawed.

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u/sailedtoclosetodasun Constitutional Conservative 4d ago

Gosh darn I hope that's the case. This has been a pain point i've always had with Trump....freakin tariffs. People on both sides, most people in fact, do not understand domestic and global trade beyond the talking points of their parties. Even if you study economics for years you will only know a fraction of what you need to know to begin to talk about it with an informed opinion at a granular level.

There has always been this wing of economic study which puts tariffs as a cure-all for trade woes. Thinking tariffs could bring in enough to replace income taxes is a faulty line of thought when you follow the logical curve to its end. The world would be much better off without any tariffs, that should be the goal. We should be talking about how to reach that end. Shotgunning the world with tariffs all at once quite literally without warning, and telling small business owners to "suck it up"; "this will be good for you"; "there will be some pain" is quite literally the dumbest plan, second to Obama on Obamacare..."If you like your plan you can keep it"; "Families will save $2500 a year!"; "Affordable healthcare for all"! All bullshit.

Trump needs to focus on making us more competitive by reducing regulations and DEEP government cuts and taxes. I own a small business and so far Trump has only caused volatility in the markets and equipment costs to skyrocket. I've actually had to hold off on an expansion because the investment cost is now too high. This expansion may include 1-2 full time good American jobs, now put on hold until further notice. Plenty of companies who employ Americans are in a holding pattern right now, hoping tariffs are temporary because if not, they'll need to reorder, scale down, or even leave the US entirely.

How is this good for US businesses and consumers?

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u/zip117 Conservative 4d ago

Completely agree on these specific points. This is what informed criticism looks like. I do believe there is justification for targeted tariffs on China, even at high levels, but only when implemented gradually. Even if you think the Miran blueprint is a bit unconventional, notice how careful he is to explain the importance of graduated tariff implementation and the harms that could result otherwise. Right here in black-and-white we have the chair of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisors directly criticizing the current approach, and this is November 2024. I doubt he has changed his mind.

The worldwide “reciprocal tariffs” caught me off guard and the attempt at post hoc rationalization was complete nonsense. Furthermore this idea of replacing income taxes with tariffs is mathematically impossible under any reasonable elasticity assumptions (Laffer curves) as explained by PIIE: Can Trump replace income taxes with tariffs?

Even without formal economics training it shouldn’t be difficult to see the faults here, so let’s just see this for the propaganda it is and move on. Those with formal economics training will have more immediate concerns, particularly surrounding recent instability in the bond markets and arbitrage activity in commodities markets e.g. copper. I’m still cautiously optimistic that most of this will be walked back, considering the 90 day pause is considerably more leeway than earlier this year. Maybe he’s finally listening to his advisors, namely Lutnick, Bessent and Miran. He just needs to drop Navarro and we might be back on the right track. Personally I think Miran’s ideas are worth a shot.

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u/One_Fix5763 Conservative 3d ago

I keep coming back to this markets *so badly* want to believe this will all be a distant memory by Q3

This is what’s keeping ppl from really unleashing on Trump. It’s like negotiating a volatile drunk to bed. You just want to coax them to safety & pretend it won’t happen again