this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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Summary

Global leaders criticized Trump’s new tariffs, which range from 10% to 49%, warning of trade wars and economic fallout.

The UK and Italy urged negotiation, while Brazil passed a reciprocity bill. China and South Korea vowed countermeasures.

Australia and New Zealand rejected Trump’s logic, citing existing trade deals and low tariffs. Norfolk Island was baffled by a 29% duty despite having no exports.

Financial markets dropped, oil and bitcoin sank, and leaders warned of inflation. Analysts say Trump risks fracturing global trade with little to gain economically.

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[–] perestroika@lemm.ee 21 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Trump's government has made the US a village idiot - and if the idiot gets into a fight with the whole village, the idiot will have more bruises.

Why he does that - I don't pretend to understand.

[–] Realitaetsverlust@lemmy.zip 1 points 52 minutes ago

He's preparing for an authoritarian takeover.

Almost every dictator in history enacted massive tariffs so they had a way to control the economy. Loyal businesses are given tariff exemptions while all the other ones are suppressed. That's what Mussolini did, that's what Putin did and now it's what trump does.

I'll wonder if that "we need guns to defend ourselves against an oppressive government" statement was true.

[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 7 points 10 hours ago

He's trying to destroy the country. Amassing as many bruises as possible is the point.

[–] jaschen@lemm.ee 4 points 8 hours ago

Can we stop winning already? I'm tired of winning so much.

[–] Dearth@lemmy.world 19 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Someone asked chatGPT how to apply tariffs to give America an equal playing field and it spit it a formula that looks shockingly similar to how trump calculated the tariffs

[–] WhatYouNeed@lemmy.world 9 points 12 hours ago

Try grok and you'll get an exact match.

[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 23 points 13 hours ago

Dead horse economics:

Wake up you lazy horse!

[–] Jhex@lemmy.world 5 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Trump basically ran his mouth, realized he had to drop something, whipped some crap together, took a dump in the living room and left for the golf field... exactly what MAGAtards wanted, hope you are enjoying it

[–] Mediocre_Bard@lemmy.world 18 points 14 hours ago

You know what's fun? Cancelling stuff and citing the reason as 'tariff-related inflation'. It's too new and there is no response script yet, so customer service doesn't really argue.

[–] Gates9@sh.itjust.works 39 points 16 hours ago
[–] bearenbey@lemm.ee 23 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Norfolk Island was baffled by a 29% duty despite having no exports.

Ahahaha. For a day, I want to be inside his head and see the world through his eyes. It would be the most valuable insight for humanity... If only to learn exactly what not to do.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 9 points 11 hours ago

No thoughts. Only anger at being confused.

More then racism, Trump's appeal is being a simple answer to a complex question. Which happens to mean racism when applied to race relations, but also harebrained economic policies or injecting bleach into yourself. This is the same man who used a sharpy to change the path of a hurricane on a map rather then admit he misspoke.

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[–] pr0sp3kt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

So, now $1 per banana is now real, wow. A complete bunch on my country costs that... We are banana exporters we are the banana republic...

[–] jasparagus@lemmy.world 18 points 14 hours ago

It's one banana, Michael. What could it cost? $10?

https://youtu.be/Nl_Qyk9DSUw

[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 12 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

The point is to make China the new boot on the throat of the human race instead of the US

[–] yagurlreese@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

no. the US is still the boot

[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

That's why they installed a Russian asset as president and why he has been destroying the US's global influence and economy for the last 3 months.

[–] eurisko@lemmy.ca 4 points 13 hours ago

I hate the fact that you are correct.

[–] Freshparsnip@lemm.ee 26 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

None of Trump's policies have any basis in reality

[–] SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world 8 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I've been saying this for years - why does anyone listen to him? He has no credibility - his whole life bio shows this clear as day.

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago

Americans are trained from birth to value ignorance as the greatest virtue. Donald Trump represents everything that American culture venerates.

[–] barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 81 points 20 hours ago (5 children)

Have we forgotten that he has done this each month since he was Inaugurated?

Today the stock market will crash on this news. The wealthy will buy on this massive dip, and in a few days, HitlerPig will announce that the countries on his list have responded to his tariff threats, so he is postponing them for a month or so.

The stock market will recover a bit, and the wealthy will make a fortune. In a month, he'll do it all over again.

It's deliberate market manipulation.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

And we'll all be destitute for it. Everyone loses when they do this, yes, even they do in the long run. Once nobody can buy a loaf of bread I'm sure we'll collectively decide right at that moment that the rich actually do taste good and maybe they should pay more in taxes.

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[–] yagurlreese@lemmy.world 6 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

what an absolute bafoon. so devoid of thoughts

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[–] HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee 21 points 17 hours ago (6 children)

I saw someone say it seems that the tariffs were calculated by dividing our trade deficit by their exports to us and cutting that number in half. Another person analyzed his charts and concluded they look a lot like they were generated by AI.

So, there is, literally no basis in logic. Either one of Trump's minions calculated what it would take to recoup the difference in the trade deficit and just wrote it down and he announced that as the new basis for international trade, which has never, ever been done, for the reason that it is fucking idiotic, or he asked Gemini how to execute his already objectively stupid policy and wrote an Executive Order making it the law.

And the fact that we are forced to accept people on the Internet's guesses about how he calculated these numbers may actually be worse than the fact that just about every product on the market more complex than a stapler just jumped about 30% in price.

[–] bender@infosec.pub 10 points 15 hours ago

They published their “methodology” today, and it’s as dumb as you’d imagine: https://ustr.gov/issue-areas/reciprocal-tariff-calculations

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[–] StopTouchingYourPhone@lemmy.world 20 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I don't buy that Trump has anything to do with the logic behind this world-destabalizing shock and awe spectacle.

The conversation would be different if people stopped attributing authorship to him and acknowledged the massive decades-old machine using him as a mouthpiece.

But it sure makes people feel smart though. Gives them something to meme about while the people who planned this get the real dirt done. Maybe he'll misspell a country name next... Do another ad for Leon's dinkeys, Israeli beans or something. Stoopid Donald got poopy pance. lol.

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[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 30 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

No basis in logic if he were actually trying to do what he says he is. He's not. They make perfect sense if the goal is to destabilize the country. We elected a fucking Manchurian candidate twice, and the in-between term was spent on a bunch of business as usual and not setting up protections in case it happened again. This country is fucking done.

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[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 11 points 16 hours ago

So 100% on brand for Trump and America in general

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