The purpose of these tarrifs is manifold.

The primary reason, in my view, is that the US is the brokest country in history. Like mosf of the West, if has outsourced its industrial production to China and the third world. It sucks in so much imported stuff that it now has a catastrophic trade balance and unpreceented debt. Just servicing the debt intrest - NOT PAYING OFF ANY PRINCIPAL - costs more annually than the defence or the health budget. This is simply unsustainable.
If the US dollar lost its status as the world currency the US would go the way of Britain after WWII, only much faster. Britain had no powerful enemies, the US does. It would be catastrophic for the world if the US lost its position in a rapid collapse of its finances.

So how do you stop China and the third world taking advantage of US and Western economic openness that China and the third world do not reciprocate? How do you correct the trade balance with conntrues that do hinder reciprocity?


LaKeisha paying more for socks and toasters at the local CrappyMart is the least of it ( many over them just pinch stuff anyway).

Frank wrote on Aug 13^th, 2025 at 12:44pm:


What if Trump's tariffs, deportations, tax increases, cutting of peoples access to healthcare and the hude DOGE layoffs, with their combined constant upward pressure on inflation, the tightening of supply in products, food, and housing creating scarcity-driven price hikes, and the chilling effect on business confidence strangling productivity and investment, combine with the collapse of trust in any economic figures coming out of the White House, what if all that crashes the US economy before these so-called "victories" against China even materialise?

What if the rest of the world simply moves on without the US, recalibrating trade and alliances while America wallows in its self-inflicted wounds?

What then, a kinetic war to retake resources?

What if the repeated, casual disrespect shown to Japan pushes them to dump US bonds, triggering financial shockwaves Washington isn't remotely prepared for?

There is only so much the US, from the people to the economy, can absorb.  You're taking an awfully big gamble that they can outlast China, especially when making enemies out of every other trading partner.

You're fixated on the endgame you've been spoon-fed, the promise that tariffs will somehow deliver a masterstroke, so blinkered that you either can't see, or won't admit, the gaping risks in Trump's approach.

And worse, you're not just excusing but actively cheering on the deliberate lies, like the ones around the BLS, that are being peddled to keep Trump's support base ignorant, celebrating the very pain they're feeling, or dutifully blaming Biden or Obama instead.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump posted a video in which Navarro explained how people such as Alexander Hamilton and Henry Clay have advocated for tariffs throughout the history of the United States. Navarro noted how Hamilton believed that the U.S. “needed tariffs to defend its young industries from British domination.”

“April 2, 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to make America wealthy again,” Trump says at the beginning of the video.

Navarro then begins to explain that Trump “imposed tariffs on countries around the world.  Trumpnomics’ goal is not only to reduce America’s trade deficit, it is to defend American workers and factories against unfair trade practices, while encouraging trillions of dollars in investment in new American plant and equipment,” Navarro says. “The policy is working for America, and no one should be surprised by this.”

“This is because before the tariff became synonymous with President Donald Trump, generations of American statesmen built the foundation for today’s America First agenda,” Navarro continued. “Their ideas were rooted in three core principles: sovereignty, security, and the protection of American workers. Economic nationalism, also known as economic populism, isn’t new. It’s a return to the proven economic model that built the greatest industrial power in world history.”

Navarro continued to explain how Alexander Hamilton was the “original architect of American economic nationalism.  In his report on manufacturers, Hamilton laid it out clearly,” Navarro continued. “United States needed tariffs to defend its young industries from British domination, and to secure true independence — not just politically, but economically. Hamilton knew that if America relied on foreign powers for manufactured goods, it would always be vulnerable.”

“Decades later, Henry Clay carried Hamilton’s vision forward,” Navarro continued. “His American system prioritized three things: a strong national bank, major infrastructure investment, and above all, protective tariffs. Clay said it best in 1824, ‘The tariff is to tax the produce of foreign industry with the view of promoting American industry.'”

“It’s the same logic President Trump used nearly 200 years later when he invoked Section 232 to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum to stop foreign overproduction and dumping from crushing American jobs,” Navarro continued.

Navarro continued on to explain how former President Abraham Lincoln “understood the value of tariffs. During the Civil War, tariff revenues helped finance the Union army, and after the war, they fueled a rapid industrial expansion,” Navarro continued. “Lincoln knew that protecting American industry meant protecting American workers and protecting the American nation itself.”

Navarro continued to point out that “the fake news wants us to believe these are fringe ideas,” adding that history teaches us that they are “the American tradition.  President Trump’s trade agenda, especially his bold use of tariffs, draws along this long line of economic nationalism,” Navarro said. “From Hamilton to Clay, from Lincoln to McKinley, and now President Donald John Trump, the core idea has remained the same. Put American workers first, build American industry, protect American sovereignty. This is the heart of the America First agenda. It’s not new, it’s certainly not radical. It’s the most American economic policy in history. Five leaders, one philosophy, make tariffs great again, make America great again.”

Armchair_Politician wrote on Aug 13^th, 2025 at 4:17pm:

Sorry.

It is hard to keep up with ALL the woke toddlers here.

Frank wrote on Aug 13^th, 2025 at 4:08pm:


Breitbart, what a flapping joke.

It's what Navarro leaves out (or distorts) that's what is important.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, tariffs were one of the few ways to raise federal revenue. The US was a developing, industrialising nation competing with established powers. Today, the US is a mature, service-heavy economy with complex global supply chains.

Historically, high tariffs often provoked trade retaliation, raised consumer prices, and sometimes harmed the very industries they were meant to protect (eg, the Smoot–Hawley Tariff of 1930 worsened the Great Depression). Navarro ignores these downsides.

Hamilton and Clay's tariffs were targeted in a far smaller, less interconnected economy. Trump's tariffs are broad, global, and hit US allies as well as rivals, which has disrupted supply chains and raised costs for US manufacturers.  Basically, what I said here.

There's little hard evidence that Trump's tariffs in 2018–2020 significantly boosted US manufacturing in the long run. Some industries saw short-term gains, but many more faced higher input costs and lost export markets.

But as seems on trend for you Frank, as long as someone tells you what you want to hear, reinforcing what you already believe, the research stops there.

Copy and paste here, then insult or ignore those who looked at both sides of the coin.

Frank wrote on Aug 13^th, 2025 at 4:40pm:


Which was addressed in the next line of the post your ran away from...

SadKangaroo wrote on Aug 13^th, 2025 at 4:36pm:

You're too predictable.

Frank wrote on Aug 13^th, 2025 at 5:24pm:


Keep dodging and insulting...  That's all you've got left.

As for Breitbart, it's hardly what any reasonable person would call a reliable news source. It's steeped in ideological bias, has a documented record of misinformation, and an equally long tradition of omission and deceptive framing, as I demonstrated with what you posted, which you're conveniently ignoring.

It exists to feed a highly partisan audience, pandering to those who already share its political stance, not by delivering balanced, factual journalism, but through the very manipulative tactics I've just outlined.

Which, of course, is precisely why you treat it as gospel and then bristle at the "sneer" you claim to detect.

So, are you going to continue pretending the inconvenient facts they left out don't exist, or will you step into reality with the rest of us?

Frank wrote on Aug 13^th, 2025 at 4:28pm:


Is that so? So whatabout all those imported goods you can't get in America?

Champagne, delish coffee, Danish cheese?

DL hasn't stuck tariffs on manufactured goods, you redeculous old thing, he's whacked them on countries.

Why would any manufacturer pack up shop and move to America, when in three years time, your DL will be gone?

If Aussie manufacturers did what your DL says, we'd be out of jobs. Countries like Chi-na are pressuring them to stay right where they are. No Chow CEO wants the inevitable knock on the door in the middle of the night, not after all the fun Xi's been having with them. India's following suit, and the rest of the world plan to wait your DL out, just like jolly old Oz.

Far easier to do deals elsewhere and ride him out than to spend five years chasing up capital, building approvals and environmental impact statements, building a new ballbearing plant in Cleveland Ohio, only to arrive and find out - hang on, where's all the workers?

Oh, they're all gone now. DL deported them for eating our cats and dogs.

Smart, beneficial, what's not to like?