start looking rather clever - by asking for 150% he seems to have achieved a small tariff from everyone which should mean billions more for the USA than previous.
Knock him all you like (and I hate his border approach) he's been far from the disaster his haters paint.

Trump wants America to start building and manufacturing again, he is encouraging the public to buy American. Starmer won't do that, he is a puppet and a muppet. He is morphing into Blair and Farage.

UK could become an energy powerhouse with all the coal and gas we have underground.

JK2006 wrote:
start looking rather clever - by asking for 150% he seems to have achieved a small tariff from everyone which should mean billions more for the USA than previous.
Knock him all you like (and I hate his border approach) he's been far from the disaster his haters paint.But JK, those billions go to building his new brainstorm of an idea...the Golden Dome. Pointless if your own people are close to poverty and can't get basic medical care without breaking the bank.

I may indeed agree that the Golden Dome won't work but let's see - neither you nor I are in a position to try it. He is, was voted there so good luck to him. He'll be thrown out in 3 years and the next President can change itvall, if it has failed, or adopt it if it has worked. At least it's trying something new.

Just like the UK where the majority do not want immigrants. Let's see how it goes.

We shall see JK. I do agree that he's not dumb. I think that's nonsense, but I do believe he doesn't have much compassion or soul.

Downing Street Cat wrote:
but I do believe he doesn't have much compassion or soul.

That's basically where I am DSC. I think I disagree with JK and some others in thinking this stuff does matter; and will in time be linked to outcomes for people as well. Character and integrity are a foundational starting point.

Downing Street Cat wrote:
JK2006 wrote:
start looking rather clever - by asking for 150% he seems to have achieved a small tariff from everyone which should mean billions more for the USA than previous.
Knock him all you like (and I hate his border approach) he's been far from the disaster his haters paint.But JK, those billions go to building his new brainstorm of an idea...the Golden Dome. Pointless if your own people are close to poverty and can't get basic medical care without breaking the bank.

It's impossible to get a GP appointment here, even for my cortisones I need for my ankles every 3-4 months, as not many GPs at my surgery can do them. I can get it done quicker if I pay about £750 to £1000, as I need a cortisone injection in both ankles, depending on what clinics can do privately.

I remember spending thousands of pounds to go to Canada for one ankle surgery (the NHS kept cancelling and delaying the operation for several years), and the operation I had in Canada helped a great deal, but it's not perfect.

The tariffs are a nonsense and extremely bad idea and typical of Trump..toss a hand grenade into the current order with no long term plan.

They are a new tax, like sales tax, on American consumers who are now paying higher prices for their necessary food and other imports.

That's until those goods run out .

Why do people laud the notion of tariffs when 350 million Americans pay this new tax. How on earth is imposing a new tax on consumers a "brilliant" idea?.

Trump could have just increased Federal sales tax but then..he couldn't get away with the blatant lie that exporting countries pay a tariff rather than the truth, importers pay it and generally pass the cost onto the consumer.

Bizarrely the majority of the MAGA crowd still seem to think China is paying the tariffs rather than them.

I really don't think Donald Trump has a clue that the USA is no longer a manufacturing country and that the giant US corporations have moved off shore.

Then again every single business Trump has created he has sent bankrupt including 3 casinos, a license to print money (one Casino he sent bust twice)

Trump has inherited a basically bankrupt country (US debt outstrips it's assets) but putting an economy in the hands of an incompetent "businessman" is folly.

Now Trump is trying to bully Apple into building a US factory to build IPhones but there is no skirting around the fact a US manufactured IPhone would cost over $3000 to the consumer rather than the current $1K.

There are a 1000 similar stories of how US manufactured goods, if in the unlikely possibility it would happen, will be too expensive for US consumers.

Fact: according to the US Financial Times China's exports have actually increased by 8% since this debacle happened.

This means they either have 1000s of brilliant export experts on the go or perhaps, they always anticipated trade problems with the US.

Fact: Biden put 100% tariff /import duty on EV electric cars.
It raised bugger all $$.

What it did was give the US based Tesla manufacture an exclusive monopoly on EVs selling at inflated prices.

In the meantime China created it's own EV industry so now the world's most popular EV is the BYD brand outstripping Tesla sales by 100,000s.

Biden's tariffs merely enriched one man. not the US. Not a single penny was raised for the US and the same will happen when US imports dry up.

How can inflated tariffs raise money for the US government when there are no imports ?.

The USA is riddled with crippling debt not caused by Trump but he did add $2Trillion to debt in his first term.

China and India have no external debt, rather with Japan they own US debt.

It's the beginning of the end of the US Empire that has lasted for 200 years but is now absolutely crippled by debt. The total collapse may take a few decades but all Empires eventually dissolve for many reasons.

Capitalism has some terrible flaws that usually end in depressions like in 1929 but works well when there are strict government controls.

But every US president since Reagan has caved into corporations dismantling regulations that kept rampant Capitalism at bey.

In 5 years China with ally India will be the richest & most powerful trading block on the planet, dwarfing the US which exports basically nothing.

The BRICS nations, China, Russia, Brazil along with ME Arab countries (and others who will rush to join) are replacing the $$$ with the Chinese Yuan which spells the end of US dominance.

The illegal invasion & destruction of Libya by the US, UK etc because Qaddafi planned to replace the $$ as currency among Arab countries just delayed the inevitable.

Verdict: be nice to China and make them your closet pals.

Green Man wrote:
Downing Street Cat wrote:
JK2006 wrote:
start looking rather clever - by asking for 150% he seems to have achieved a small tariff from everyone which should mean billions more for the USA than previous.
Knock him all you like (and I hate his border approach) he's been far from the disaster his haters paint.But JK, those billions go to building his new brainstorm of an idea...the Golden Dome. Pointless if your own people are close to poverty and can't get basic medical care without breaking the bank.

It's impossible to get a GP appointment here, even for my cortisones I need for my ankles every 3-4 months, as not many GPs at my surgery can do them. I can get it done quicker if I pay about £750 to £1000, as I need a cortisone injection in both ankles, depending on what clinics can do privately.

I remember spending thousands of pounds to go to Canada for one ankle surgery (the NHS kept cancelling and delaying the operation for several years), and the operation I had in Canada helped a great deal, but it's not perfect. In 2016 I suffered a Priapism- a very painful and permanent erection. My penis almost died. The NHS fixed it and operated within two months giving it a new life with a valve and tubing so I could get a painless erection. The cost without the NHS would have exceeded £25 000. I didn't pay a penny. Those including Trump wanting poor people to have no free healthcare have free healthcare.

Hedda - it's not whether this is a good or bad idea (I know nothing) - it's whether trying something different should be allowed. I disagreed with much of Jeremy Corbyn's ideas but felt we should give him a chance. I feel a bit the same about Trump but am not prepared, knowing nothing, to consider whether they are good, bad or somewhere in the middle.

And yes Cat I totally disgree with Trump about heath care (I liked Obama) as I do about immigration but again -I'm not President. They voted him in.

Downing Street Cat wrote:
Green Man wrote:
Downing Street Cat wrote:
JK2006 wrote:
start looking rather clever - by asking for 150% he seems to have achieved a small tariff from everyone which should mean billions more for the USA than previous.
Knock him all you like (and I hate his border approach) he's been far from the disaster his haters paint.But JK, those billions go to building his new brainstorm of an idea...the Golden Dome. Pointless if your own people are close to poverty and can't get basic medical care without breaking the bank.

It's impossible to get a GP appointment here, even for my cortisones I need for my ankles every 3-4 months, as not many GPs at my surgery can do them. I can get it done quicker if I pay about £750 to £1000, as I need a cortisone injection in both ankles, depending on what clinics can do privately.

I remember spending thousands of pounds to go to Canada for one ankle surgery (the NHS kept cancelling and delaying the operation for several years), and the operation I had in Canada helped a great deal, but it's not perfect. In 2016 I suffered a Priapism- a very painful and permanent erection. My penis almost died. The NHS fixed it and operated within two months giving it a new life with a valve and tubing so I could get a painless erection. The cost without the NHS would have exceeded £25 000. I didn't pay a penny. Those including Trump wanting poor people to have no free healthcare have free healthcare.


You were lucky, it seems to be a postcode lottery. I waited well over a year for my ankle; the fourth letter about the operation being cancelled was enough. I paid about 35 thousand dollars to have the operation. Which equals about £19 thousand. I got a holiday out of it also. I shouldn't have even had to go to Canada for the op. It was still cheaper than going private in the UK, when you add conversion into the equation.

Paying £25k for an operation on your tinkle sounds eyes watering. They had you over a barrel.

JK2006 wrote:
Hedda - it's not whether this is a good or bad idea (I know nothing) - it's whether trying something different should be allowed. I disagreed with much of Jeremy Corbyn's ideas but felt we should give him a chance. I feel a bit the same about Trump but am not prepared, knowing nothing, to consider whether they are good, bad or somewhere in the middle.

And yes Cat I totally disgree with Trump about heath care (I liked Obama) as I do about immigration but again -I'm not President. They voted him in.

But it's not a new idea, it's a bloody well worn hackneyed old idea that has always resulted in trade wars where no-one wins.

It's just amazing that the great county of America was actually born out of a tariff war where Prince George and Britain's government imposed a tariff / import duty on tea in the then US colony.

The resulting War of Independence (aided by the French who financed it and sent troops but get insulted by Trump these days) demolished Britain's control and the US was born.

Trump has delayed the tariffs for months now so no money could have possibly been raised.

Nonetheless the world's biggest retailer and the world's largest ever employer Walmart has announced it will raise prices as they have to factor in eventual tariffs if they go ahead as shelves are beginning to run bare.

Ironically the MAGA crowd in the 10s of millions will be Walmart customers as Walmart not only has goods unobtainable elsewhere (mainly Chinese manufactured household items and Mexican food stuffs) but they still believe China pays the tariffs and not Walmart.

This is all quite apart from US "free enterprise" beliefs in Capitalism where governments are not expected to dictate to private business.

Trump roundly criticizes Walmart for raising prices demanding they absorb tariffs / import duty as they make $Billions in profit a year but this so-called "Art of The Deal" dill does not understand Walmart makes huge profits on an unbelievable turnover of goods, but they actually have very low profit margins on most items as they rely on the sheer bulk of sales.

If they absorbed tariffs on their imported goods, they would have to sell at a loss.

Thus they cannot financially absorb the tariffs they will need to pay and are passing them on to consumers.

This is replicated a 1000 times over in other businesses.

Trump believes in the impossible..that huge US corporations who spent $Billions going off shore will spend more $Billions returning to the US when business takes years to formulate such moves that in turn cost $Billions to set up and then possibly years before they make a profit, will come running back to the USA for a 4 year term president who cannot run again and who, is just as likely to change his mind on a whim.

That's if he lasts 4 years.

At a speech to West Point cadets 2 days ago he wandered off topic to ramble on about "trophy wives" and pondered whether Stealth planes were invisible or not (West Pt is army not air force) all while wearing a MAGA hat thus insulting possibly half the audience .

I wonder what JD Vance thinks about tariffs?

Trump has now surrounded himself with yes men & women with not a single one brave enough to "advise" him as they saw what happened in his first administration with nearly 90% of the hired experts being sacked if they disagreed with the Master.

I say it again..Donald Trump is the Chauncey Gardiner (from Being There) of politics who makes (inane) comments people mistake for great wisdom until they finally realise he's speaking absolute bollox.

Verdict: be nice to China and make them your closet pals.

Lockdown cost the economy Billions of dollars. When Con-vid hit the US, it was near the end of Trump's presidency. Biden was in charge or his handlers were, after that, throwing money left, right and centre. Trump said Covid came from a lab, and he was right! It's going to take generations for the money pissed away for a common cold to be paid back and for the UK also.

The UK is going to be bankrupt before the U.S.

China, Bill Gates and Fauci are to blame for Covid, not some bat. Someone was watching Outbreak.

Well put Hedda - about whether tariffs are a good or bad idea. You obviously know much more about it than I do. But my point remains - on these trivial, unimportant matters of government, should the elected President, Prime Minister or ruling democracy be prepared to try something different? I think that they should, as they will anyway, unless media and public tells them otherwise. In about three years there will be a change to change it all. Meanwhile there are far more important things to worry about.

JK2006 wrote:
Well put Hedda - about whether tariffs are a good or bad idea. You obviously know much more about it than I do. But my point remains - on these trivial, unimportant matters of government, should the elected President, Prime Minister or ruling democracy be prepared to try something different? I think that they should, as they will anyway, unless media and public tells them otherwise. In about three years there will be a change to change it all. Meanwhile there are far more important things to worry about.

I suppose Trump is being consistent as he's apparently been obsessed by tariffs for decades.

I am of course a civilian in all this but I do take note of learned economists and I cannot find one that backs Trump on tariffs but the vast majority including Harvard professors etc reckon it's a dodgy idea.

I'm just pleased he called our PM a great friend after the recent election when I really thought he' attack him for winning on part anti-MAGA policies.