It's hard to tell whether or not they truly don't understand, or they do, and they're just saying shit to rile up their base.

Not sure how much it matters either way, though. Consciously or not, it's still the spread of misinformation.

You want to cut my hair for cheap? No, I am going to stab myself in the eye with the scissors. Haha, you lose.

Seriously though, tariffs can help (as part of a bigger strategy) to develop and protect important industries. You probably want a surgical approach in applying them, though.

If any of this actually happened (unlikely), I'd expect the US to start a very long slide to irrelevance.

i'm not convinced that the trump boys actually want to stop drugs from entering the country

Here's how tariffs work (I import stuff from china)

1. I find a Chinese manufacturer of widgets and negotiate with them. One of their first questions is, what incoterms do I require? I tell them EXW which makes their quotation the easiest to provide.

EXW means that once the goods are ready, I'll send my shipping agent to go get them and bring them to me in my country.

2. I call my agent and tell them to get the goods. They ask a lot of questions about the contents of the goods and figure out which HS code to use, which is a classification of what the goods are (such as bicycle tires, or unfinished lumber, or whatever).

3. The agent prepares an assload of documentation for my shipment. They send a truck to the Chinese warehouse, get the stuff, load it into a container, take it to a shipyard. It's loaded, boat moves to the US, boat is then unloaded, and my container is put into an inspection queue.

4. The shipping agent forwards the documents about my container, which has not been released, to US customs. US customers decides if they want to manually inspect it or not, and then issues an invoice for the taxes. My agent calls me and says Mr. Nucleative, your customs bill is $9,845.50.

I pay them, they pay the US customs office. Customs releases my container.

5. The truck is cleared to pick up my container and drive it to my warehouse.

6. Now I unload and sell the goods to my customers.

Did you notice in step #4 that I paid the import tariffs? Now my cost to get the goods to my customers went way up. My margins are pretty thin, so I can't do this business unless I charge my customers more or else I'm running a charity. Now, my customers have to pay me more. That money goes straight to the US government.

Hypothetically now it's less unattractive to set up a factory in the USA, encouraging more local jobs. But damn, did you know we also need to import rubber, and metal, and machine parts, and cardboard for packaging, and all the other raw supplies either way? The local factories, if there are any, can probably not increase production to meet demand anyways, at least not in a month or two. Does anybody remember what happend when demand outstrips supply?

There is no rocket science here, just people learning from the wrong people.

We are going to cost your countries, your economies, we're going to cost your businesses billions, hundreds of billions of dollars if you think you're going to poison Americans

They realize American manufacturers and consumers pay the tariffs, right? Not the other countries.

There is something deeply ironic about the US accusing China of flooding their country with illegal drugs. The next step is for China to demand reparations to all the fentanyl producers hurt by US law enforcement activity. Then they invade, force us to take the drugs and pay the reparations. OH, and they're going to administer Hawaii for 99 years.

Shit’s gonna be hilarious and tragic when a head of lettuce costs $12.99.

Eric Trump ~~demonstrates in 30 seconds he~~ doesn’t have a clue ~~how tariffs work~~

I'm not sure anyone in that family understands trade at all?

Donvict seems to think a trade deficit means China is ripping us off or something. They also seem to think that China is going to be paying tariffs, for example, when it is only going to mean that Americans are going to be paying for it. Not China. Slapping tariffs on goods coming from China, etc....is JUST ANOTHER TAX.

Do any of the dumbfucks in the Bircher/teabagger/maga/qanon, (whatever the fuck the crazies are calling themselves these days, it's a constantly rotating set of labels, but it's all basically the same set of stupid beliefs driven by feels rooted in racism) really understand that a tariff is a TAX? Again, these dipshits tried to start the "Tea party", saying they were "taxed enough already" and I bet anything that only a very, very small percentage of them have made the connection. I bet most of the teabaggermaga dipshits think it's gonna "make America great" or some shit because, donvict, their great white hope, is the one doing it to them. And doing it to them hard.

No he most likely knows. He's gaslighting the people who are watching. What's the simpler answer here? Well educated billionaire doesn't know how tariffs work, or he's lying through his teeth to protect his interests?

Like moronic father. Like moronic son.

Isn't Eric the one that got rushed to the hospital because he forgot how to breathe for a while?

Eric fails to understand who has the money to create the demand for illegal drugs. Also, a large portion of the illegal drug distribution is in the rural red counties because they lack law enforcement.

That's like rubbing shit on your face and telling a bully, "Okay tough guy! You want to punch me now?"

Shameless question. At this point I approach this entire presidency as a cash/power grab by the incumbent administration.

So from an investment perspective how would pleb like me, with my Roth and 401k, game these tariffs? Local industry might get a boost, but for the most part we (the USA) still won’t produce a lot of the goods being tariffed. So, do you just bet high on commodities and U.S reseller/retailers as the big winners 12 months into the administration? Asking for a friend that’s totally not me trying to make the best out of a potentially disastrous 4 years. Thank you,

A smart approach would be to slowly dial stuff up so that manufacturers had, ya know, time to build and train for complex manufacturing plants in US.

But they’re not going to do that. The plants are where they are, they would take years to move, and American consumers will pay the new import taxes in the interim.

does he think that drugs that are smuggled into the country will pay the tariffs?