He's an ideot.

It's a stupid, self harming policy.

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Most of the cost of the tariff is effectively paid for by US companies and consumers, little by China. Only an idiot would think that whoever we slap the tax on will end up paying it in practice.

There's a vast body of academic work on international trade and the effect of tariffs and trade wars on the countries involved, their businesses, consumers etc. Trump will no doubt have advisers around him patiently explaining how to think through the incidence effects of his tariff packages (at least we can hope he does!), but he's obviously doing it anyway. For what its worth the likely ultimate effect on China is likely to be even smaller once you take currency movements into account.

tl;dr: He is a massive t**t pursuing policies that manifestly harm the nation he leads.

Posted By: Under soil heating, Sep 18, 09:42:36