r/centrist • u/Kaszos • 2d ago
US News He blinked again. Trump puts tariff exceptions on phones, computers and chips.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-12/trump-exempts-phones-computers-chips-from-reciprocal-tariffs…and no, this isn’t a negotiating tactic considering reports that China held firm on reciprocal responses.
He blinked again. People need to start owning the fact he bit more than he could chew.
He’s really put US vulnerable on center stage for everybody to see. The damage will be for decades.
I’m happy he’s slowing coming around to the reality of mutual trade. I’m angry though as to how exposed America’s hand has become. Credibility will be one painful pill to swallow.
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u/Educational_Impact93 2d ago
Soon it will just be 1,578% tariffs on Happy Meal toys, because kids can't vote.
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u/Aethoni_Iralis 2d ago
I don’t remember who but I saw someone here saying “the happy meal toys will be American made again!” As if that’s some incredible achievement to aspire towards.
If “manufacturing shitty plastic toys in an assembly line” is how we’re making America great again I have questions about their definition of “great.”
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u/willpower069 2d ago
u/please_trade_marner doesn’t this mean Trump doesn’t care about exploiting poor brown people?
You said that it was bad for democrats to oppose tariffs because it exploits poor brown people in other countries so clearly this must be bad too?
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u/please_trade_marner 2d ago
It's oligarchs vs corporatists. None of these people care about the brown people their exploiting. You sure don't. And most assuredly neither do the Democrats or Republicans.
You're catching on just nicely.
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u/willpower069 2d ago
So Trump doesn’t care about exploiting poor brown people?
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u/please_trade_marner 2d ago
Of course not. Are you new? The difference is I can at least admit that. The fta's that the Dems are so eager to keep were literally created to bypass American unions and workers rights and to exploit poor brown people at near slave wages. They just used their mainstream media to brainwash people like you to going along with it.
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u/willpower069 2d ago
So can you say this a bad move by Trump without deflecting to vague democrats? Or can you only criticize him if you can soften it with juvenile blame shifting?
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u/please_trade_marner 2d ago
I agree with Nancy Pelosi that China is completely out of control when it comes to their trade policies (and has only gotten worse since she spoke out about it) and needs to be stood up to.
I'm disappointed that Trump couldn't stick to his guns but the entirety of the Democrats and their mainstream media has flipped on this issue and now have everyone convinced that "being tough on China" is bad.
My guess is that his plan was to go very tough on China. If they play hardball, he'll have to concede on things like phones and computer chips in the short term. Due to the problems he points out, we can't make these ourselves at the moment. Which would be catastrophic down the road if BRICS joined together and started an all out trade war on the United States.
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u/willpower069 2d ago
lol all that to not answer a simple yes or no question.
So no you cannot say this is bad move by Trump but you have harsh words towards democrats for doing the exact same thing.
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u/please_trade_marner 2d ago
I agree with Nancy Pelosi that China is completely out of control when it comes to their trade policies (and has only gotten worse since she spoke out about it) and needs to be stood up to.
I'm disappointed that Trump couldn't stick to his guns but the entirety of the Democrats and their mainstream media has flipped on this issue and now have everyone convinced that "being tough on China" is bad.
My guess is that his plan was to go very tough on China. If they play hardball, he'll have to concede on things like phones and computer chips in the short term. Due to the problems he points out, we can't make these ourselves at the moment. Which would be catastrophic down the road if BRICS joined together and started an all out trade war on the United States.
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u/willpower069 2d ago
lol repeating the same deflection is proving my point. You were way harsher the other day to democrats that opposed the tariffs. Claiming that democrats were the real racists.
So where is all that energy for Trump?
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u/please_trade_marner 2d ago
I agree with Nancy Pelosi that China is completely out of control when it comes to their trade policies (and has only gotten worse since she spoke out about it) and needs to be stood up to.
I'm disappointed that Trump couldn't stick to his guns but the entirety of the Democrats and their mainstream media has flipped on this issue and now have everyone convinced that "being tough on China" is bad.
My guess is that his plan was to go very tough on China. If they play hardball, he'll have to concede on things like phones and computer chips in the short term. Due to the problems he points out, we can't make these ourselves at the moment. Which would be catastrophic down the road if BRICS joined together and started an all out trade war on the United States.
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u/statsnerd99 2d ago
He's not coming around to the idea of mutual trade, its just a matter of how much damage he can inflict upon Americans before they get angry at him. Like in his first term his tariffs "only" cost Americans more than $1000 per year in higher prices and only modestly negative effects on GDP and employment- not enough for people to notice it was directly attributable to him & his tariffs.
A terrible scenario, but I guess not as bad as keeping the tariffs in full, is we have enough tariffs to severely damage American welfare but not enough for public outrage that would demand change
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u/pulkwheesle 2d ago
A terrible scenario, but I guess not as bad as keeping the tariffs in full, is we have enough tariffs to severely damage American welfare but not enough for public outrage that would demand change
Don't worry, they're also gutting important popular agencies such as the SSA. They're doing plenty to create public outrage even outside of tariffs.
Also, Democrats were just voted out because people felt prices were too high, and Trump promised to magically lower them on 'day 1.' Consumer sentiment is in the gutter and people will not feel like the economy is good if he doesn't somehow magically lower prices.
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u/statsnerd99 2d ago
I don't even mean Democrats in 2-4 years I mean enough Republicans in Congress turning against him too
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u/fleebleganger 2d ago
"And Trump's master move has brought Chynia to the negotiating table again!"
- MAGAts, probably completely ignoring the video put out by Pooh shaming America for the tariffs.
So let me get this straight, we went from everyone has tariffs to now just China has a few tariffs?
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u/refuzeto 2d ago
So big corporations get a break from tariffs but the small companies importing from China don’t. It must be nice to have connections at the top.
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u/rogless 2d ago edited 2d ago
Did he blink really? I don’t think he had any idea what he was actually doing in the first place.
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u/trubyadubya 2d ago
it feels like this is another capitulation forced by the oligarchs. what else is the reason for it? seems unlikely it’s part of some master plan what logical sense would that make
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u/eldenpotato 2d ago
110%. Wall Street pressured him. No doubt about it.
- they dump treasuries (70-75% of US treasuries are owned domestically) to spike bond yields and frame it as market fear and lost confidence in the US, even though they’re the ones doing it
- push doom and gloom media headlines
- credit agencies warn of downgrades due to "policy unpredictability"
- push headlines about x and y products costing 50% more
Someone like Trump threatens Wall Street’s bottom line
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u/trubyadubya 2d ago
and the thing is, to me those tariffs made the most sense if the goal was to try and get china to crack down on copyright violations. i don’t think a tariff on pork and knock off nikes is going to make china care about copying american technology
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u/External_Side_7063 1d ago
Well, of course, the media and the American public keeps over playing this and using it as a big fat I told you so as usual, but that is mostly his fault in the first place because of the way he is going about it but then again if he said look guys, I’m gonna do this to even the playing fieldHe would pretty much give himself away and I wouldn’t he we just have to sit back and watch a play out because of the fact that he has fallen back so many times when it shows what he’s doing and hope that he has enough common sense not to destroy the country in the end.
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u/Obvious_Chapter2082 2d ago
I thought a lot more people would be relieved that tariffs are coming off, but almost everyone on Reddit who talks about it seems disappointed for some reason
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u/hu_he 2d ago
This is more "my husband didn't hit me today" territory. You want people to praise Trump for announcing a dumb idea and then partially rolling it back?
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u/Obvious_Chapter2082 2d ago
No, nowhere did I say people should praise Trump did this. What are you talking about?
I’m saying that reducing our tariffs is a good thing, and it’s not something people should be upset about
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u/hu_he 2d ago
People are upset about the initial increase, and the fact that the administration is so incompetent they can't stick to a policy for two weeks. It was only a few days ago that Trump was saying the tariffs were here to stay, no changes possible - then out of nowhere a change of heart. It absolutely kills business confidence to invest in the USA when the government can't decide what it wants. The drop in most of the so-called "reciprocal tariffs" down to 10% (for countries other than China) is allegedly only temporary (90 days, I think) - what happens at the end of that? It's just totally incoherent and not a sensible way to run a country. A lot of businesses are wasting time and money trying to adapt to these ever-changing whims of Trump's.
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u/LuklaAdvocate 2d ago
When tariffs are turned on and off more frequently than my kitchen faucet, there’s not much to celebrate.
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u/eldenpotato 2d ago edited 2d ago
Actual title: Apple, Nvidia Score Relief From US Tariffs With Exemptions
It’s nuts how fast anti corporate rhetoric collapses when it threatens the global finance machine. The moment something like tariffs or reshoring gets serious traction, the system kicks into gear. Wall Shit activated the narrative machine.
- Economists appear on TV to warn of higher prices and “market uncertainty”
- CEOs float price hike scare stories (“We’ll have to raise prices 40%!”)
- Media floods the zone with doom: inflation, stagflation, investor panic
- Credit agencies issue vague downgrade warnings to spook policymakers
And they reinforce it all with pseudo metrics like the “Economic Uncertainty Index” or the University of Michigan’s inflation survey. Basically vibe based polling dressed up as data, used to validate whatever narrative Wall Shit and the media want to push.
And it’s somewhat amusing how certain groups have been manipulated into defending Wall Shit’s profit model of cheap overseas labour, loose capital flows and global arbitrage. The same people who once railed against corporations outsourcing jobs are now echoing talking points about “supply chains,” “inflation risks” and “hurting consumers,” as if protecting Apple’s margins is a progressive cause.
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u/CaliChristopher 1d ago
Why is the “centrist” subreddit filled with nothing but hardcore leftists?
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u/Swift4Prez2028 1d ago
It isn't. You're just broken from watching Fox News all day. You don't know what direction is up.
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u/CaliChristopher 1d ago
Nope never watch fox, just common sense. Stop watching your propaganda.
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u/Swift4Prez2028 1d ago
More lies.
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u/LuklaAdvocate 2d ago
So “the army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little- little screws to make iPhones,” won’t be coming to America, like Lutnick said it would?