Summary
Trump snapped at a reporter who asked how much economic pain he was willing to inflict amid plunging markets triggered by his new tariffs.
Speaking after a weekend at his Florida resort, Trump dismissed speculation he was trying to crash the market, claiming tariffs would bring in “$1 trillion” and spur U.S. manufacturing.
When asked about a pain threshold for Americans, he called the question “so stupid,” arguing economic “medicine” was necessary to reverse decades of “stupid leadership.”
He insisted the strategy would make the U.S. “solid and strong again.”
Wanna ask Trump if he’ll still be alive by the time American manufacturing makes his tariffs pay off
How long did it take China to build itself into a self-sufficient superpower that produced goods for the world?
Around 50 years, with a tight rein on the population and a leadership that had consistency and a 30, 50 and 100 year vision that they continually executed against.
Even in the best case scenario of everybody rallying behind Trump and pulling together behind a single strategy that miraculously turns out to work, Trump will be dead in 30 years or less.
So HE probably isn’t realistically thinking this, even if it’s what he’s decided to tell everyone this week.
One thing about Trump: I do believe that underneath it all, he does want to make America a great nation. He’s just ignorant of how to do that or what it would even look like when achieved.
One thing about Trump: I do believe that underneath it all, he does want to make America a great nation.
No. He just wants to be the leader of a great nation. Anything “great” that happens to America or Americans, would be entirely accidental. He never thinks about anything other than himself.
Don’t forget Krasnov Trump bankrupted his casinos. Only he knows why he is bankrupting US now.
Great points.
One thing about Trump: I do believe that underneath it all, he does want to make America a great nation. He’s just ignorant of how to do that or what it would even look like when achieved.
I don’t think he does. I think he wants to make it a better place for him, and he doesn’t get any further than that as a concept.
Being a narcissist, I don’t think he differentiates between making it great and making it great for him.
He does, because he sees the world as a zero sum game. For him to prosper, others have to suffer.
China’s growth is not a story of self-sufficiency.
It is a story of doing state directed capitalism, making extensive use of international trade, much more productively, intentionally, and strategically competently than… basically any other economy in the history of the post ww2 world.
They are not self-sufficient in the sense of autarky, a hermit kingdom like North Korea with 0 international trade.
Vietnam basically 80s onward, is a similar economic story of a ‘Communist’ government/society/economy that did a good job of introducing elements of capitalistic economic systems into itself gradually, with great control, and much of its profits siphoned into further reforms and building up public services and infrastructure… lots of international trade in all that, though they have been significantly less restrictive of foreign direct than China has.
… So is Japan, post ww2, minus the ‘Communist’ starting position, though with a good deal more foreign direct investment.
A free market republican/libertarian who learned how large of a role the government of Japan played in directly molding the evolution of its industries and manipulating its markets, openly, would call it ‘communist’, because they think ‘communism is when the government does stuff’.
In reality, its state directed capitalism, but in Japan, they call this capitalism, in Vietnam and China, they call this same thing communism.
Their political systems and culture are all very different, but their economic organization and growth patterns actually have a lot in common.
China does capitalism, its just that the state explicitly owns the largest corporations. But these corporations are still ultimately playing the same capitalism game as all other corps… they just have a lot more subsidies from and control by the state/Party officials.
I do believe that underneath it all, he does want to make America a great nation.
I gave W that credit. I don’t believe it’s true for Trump, outside of the fully narcissistic version.
It appears his first priority is pleasing Putin. His second is getting a small number of people to applaud him. He doesn’t give a single fuck about America or Americans as a whole.
He’s not tolerating squat when it comes to any pain, for ANY of his actions, least of all his tariff fuckery.
His motives may be unclear, but his actions are crystal clear. He’s tried to enact tariffs already and been stopped before they were implemented because everyone knows the level of damage they cause. He’s moving forward this time. He’s deliberately crashing the global economy.
Why? Who knows? His Silicon Valley overlords demand it? I doubt it’s Putin, because Russia’s economy is hanging on by a thread, and the last thing they need is a global downturn, especially when it craters oil prices. Is it just that Trump is stupid, maybe senile, and ultimately in charge?
Regardless, the leader of the biggest economy in the world has decided that it’s time for a global recession/depression, so unless that course is changed, that’s probably what’s going to happen.
Ooh, I can assure you his motives are just as clear as his actions.
I wouldn’t believe a word he said, nothing but self-truth (lies). I know his mother doesn’t.
I always thought there was something to Bill Hicks’ “smoke filled room” bit
Apparently not. A group of intelligent people would never pick Trump.
That smoke filled room of Republicans talked about the Overton Window 30 years ago. They decided that they could move that window just by pretending to be much farther right than they really were. The thing about pretending is that if you do it for long enough it’s not pretending anymore. Thirty years later they realized they’ve lost control of what they started. A quarter of the elected officials are now true believers, another half are under Russian blackmail. And anyone who speaks up (Liz- Dick Cheney, a list of others) loses their seat.
His motives are always crystal clear. Ego. He wants people to grovel and beg for exceptions. He wants to feel powerful. The fact that mainstream news won’t say so is likely predicted on not wanting to be banned from the press pool like the AP was.
The government and media have a mutually parasitic relationship. The government uses the media to spread and reinforce their propaganda, while the media’s jobs are made much easier by having direct and ostensibly willing access to the people in government. If they want access, the media has to play ball. The rules seem to be unwritten, like their own little interwoven social contract. The result being that they’ve mostly become pushovers when some Orange Jackass comes along to play dictator and burn the country to the ground in pursuit of his own aggrandizement.
His motives are always crystal clear. Ego. He wants people to grovel and beg for exceptions. He wants to feel powerful. The fact that mainstream news won’t say so is likely predicted on not wanting to be banned from the press pool like the AP was.
He also wants personal “favors”. He will come out of this vastly wealthier, even if USA becomes a third world country,
It’s all plans from the '30s. Canada, the US, Mexico, Greenland, dismantling democracy to install technocrats, crashing the economy to bring back company towns - none of it is new, it’s just being implemented in a nonsensical and incompetent way, so it seems random
It’s not a good plan to start with, but there is a plan… One the oligarchs bought into, but without understanding how the plan was meant to be enacted
This is mostly consistent with what I’ve seen, but I would like to know more. Are there any books or articles on the topic, in particular how what is happening is like another attempt at the same plan now that most WWII vets and survivors are dying off/dead/otherwise incapacitated and so those who have the most reason to stop it from happening are much less likely to do so?
Sure. Wikipedia on technocracy movement
Basically, they want to control all aspects of society on high - no politicians, direct control of the economy, rigidly scheduled work and production, and expanding the borders from Panama to the artic circle.
Imagine centralized planning and authoritarian control of all aspects of society, but by business leaders (who presumably are the smartest and best at listening to science)
Here’s the movement described by proponents:
Technocracy is the science of social engineering, the scientific operation of the entire social mechanism to produce and distribute goods and services to the entire population of this continent. For the first time in human history it will be done as a scientific, technical, engineering problem. There will be no place for Politics or Politicians, Finance or Financiers, Rackets or Racketeers. Technocracy states that this method of operating the social mechanism of the North American Continent is now mandatory because we have passed from a state of actual scarcity into the present status of potential abundance in which we are now held to an artificial scarcity forced upon us in order to continue a Price System which can distribute goods only by means of a medium of exchange. Technocracy states that price and abundance are incompatible; the greater the abundance the smaller the price. In a real abundance there can be no price at all. Only by abandoning the interfering price control and substituting a scientific method of production and distribution can an abundance be achieved. Technocracy will distribute by means of a certificate of distribution available to every citizen from birth to death. The Technate will encompass the entire American Continent from Panama to the North Pole because the natural resources and the natural boundary of this area make it an independent, self-sustaining geographical unit.[45]
Ask him if he is willing to give up mar-a-lago to save the American people. Or is he only willing to sacrifice what doesn’t belong to him.
Sometimes very intelligent people don’t understand stupid questions. BUT sometimes, VERY STUPID people can’t understand basic questions.
“necessary to reverse decades of “stupid leadership.”” - Four years of which HE was in charge - or in HIS brain eight, seeing as he still believes he won the election before this one.
he’s totally ok that every vulnerable has to eat leather boots to make it through a depression.
“libs were pwned”
Trump bankrupted a casino, is anyone surprised he’s doing the same to America.
Wrong. WRONG!
It was more than one casino.1991: Trump Taj Mahal
1992: Trump Castle Hotel & Casino
1992: Trump Plaza Casino
1992: Trump Plaza Hotel (not a casino, ‘just’ a hotel.)
2004: Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts
2009: Trump Entertainment Resorts (casino holding company)There are numerous other businesses that failed spectacularly, too.
Then there are the failed businesses that were neverbsupposed to succeed because they were fraud from the inception, like Trump University. They announced it and promoted it, and signed up students, who took out student loans ffrom the government and sent them to thebadmissions department.
Then it turned out that they never bought/ rented a single building, hired no teachers, never created a curriculum, etc. They didn’t do one thing to create a school except sign up students and take their student loan money. It didn’t go bankrupt, it never existed, but they sold it anyway.
Trump Vodka was a success UNTIL he came out as a non-drinker. Tanked his business.
Its time to revive Trump Steaks with our “beautiful beef.”
I don’t get it. If your position is that a temporary downturn is necessary then the question seems very sensible. And somehow Trump says it is necessary but asking about the maximum extent he’d go for is very stupid?
It’s very simple. His position is that whatever he does is perfect. If he openly considers the impacts of temporarily weakening the economy, and the consequences that go with retirees losing their homes, for example, he will have to admit imperfection. And he’s such a narcissist that he’s incapable of that. He can allude to some possible temporary badness as long as he doesn’t overly focus on it.
At the same time, because of his broken brain and his narcissism, facts are not facts. Everything is an opinion. Therefore, the reporter was expressing an opinion through their question, and they should have known that his opinion is more important than theirs.
It’s not supposed to be temporary. They want to destroy the economy. They want to destroy the entire system that FDR started. They want to tear down the US and their Western allies, that’s their true goal, and create something like Praxis in its place, a supposed libertarian paradise where every city and piece of land is controlled by a Corporation that has judicial and executive power over one territory, a fiefdom.
Well, it is a stupid question. A real journalist would ask how much more pain he’s willing to let the American people tolerate for his poorly disguised reverse pump and dump scheme
The only way I see the US becoming “solid and strong again”, is a revolution that results in a Constitution v2.0 that fixes many issues with the structure of government, voting, and setting rules regarding wealth. Otherwise, odds are that the US will splinter apart into several major bodies.
On the plus side of splintering, it means many conservatives would flee out of Blue States, and the Blue States get more people who believe in governance, science, democracy, and society. They would be far more stronger and influential than Red States in the long run. Blue States won’t have to play ball with stupid conservative ideas, such as non-medical vaccine exemptions, anti-migrant policies, and so forth.
At least one revolution is already underway, but those responsible for the current change are wearing red hats. The neo-reactionary Butterfly Revolution.
Unfortunately, most Democratic Party politicians today are the real conservatives in the sense that they simply want to preserve the old system.
And there are people who identify as Democrats but are increasingly disillusioned, who want reform or revolution in the direction of a egalitarian, democratic society with strong social welfare systems geared toward equity (let’s hope they grow in number), not in the direction of the elitist, authoritarian, technofeudalist, rigid hierarchical society proposed by adherents of the Dark Enlightenment ideas. Such people could redirect the current Butterfly Revolution in the opposite direction and foment division among Republicans.
A split would create North Korea 2.0
A split would create North and South Koreas. If we don’t split, I’m afraid we will only get North Korea 2.0
Until the red states run out of food and start eyeing the neighbouring blue states
Where do you think food comes from exactly? It’s not New York City or San Francisco. California has a good bit of farm country, but a lot of the rest of our food does come from “red” states.
except lots are paid by the government to grow food. that money is now gone.
They can eyeball all they want, the red states are also the US’ welfare queens. They’re poor AF and would be bankrupt in a couple of years.
Plus the people that live in those states by and large aren’t capable of any kind of sustained physical activity
It’s amazing how confident the truly stupid are.
Everybody is thinking way, way too much into this.
If Trump would have to answer a question where he doesn’t know the answer, or would have to admit that people disagree with him, or he feels even mildly challenged, this is considered a personal attack on him. You are trying to get him to admit to not being 100% perfect 100% of the time. And he responds to that by lashing out like a small child, attacking you, making up childish names for you, and insulting you. This is how he has always responded.
This has nothing to do with his thoughts on economic policies or the effects of his tariffs. He doesn’t think far enough ahead to either know or care. This reporter had the audacity to challenge him, and Trump lashed out. That’s all. That’s how he always responds.
I can’t understand how more people don’t understand this. There’s no depth to any of this. An immature, ignorant, narrow-minded idiot doing immature, ignorant, narrow-minded things. The media’s sane washing is to blame, I guess, if not the straight propaganda from right wing outlets. But at this point if you’re still giving the benefit of the doubt you’re part of the problem.
So true. You don’t have to dig deep into any of his responses when you criticize anything about him. He will lash out. He’s a child. That’s it.
Trump will endure precisely zero economic pain since he is rich. He doesn’t have to go through anything. He sits in a literal ivory tower why would he feel bad about anything?
Economic Medicine? This shit must have been economics course at the fucking failed Trump University.
its called a word salad, and the WEAVE.
