mtutiger

Does Lutnick realize how much leverage Canada has right now to just keep all of the retaliatory tariffs on even if we pull back on specific items?

I didn't either, I don't generally watch them though... I think Biden's last year was the first one I watched in years.

Is it really that shocking though?

I'm guessing that the speech was chicken**** mixed with shards of glass, and the panel on CNN will tell us it was the tastiest chicken salad ever concieved.

I think the folks who feel betrayed by the current iteration of the GOP (think someone like Walsh or much of The Bulwark or even The Dispatch) are much more clear-eyed about the moment we are in than a lot of the liberal punditry out there to be honest.

Using the parlance of the online right, they see the rest of the world (or allies anyway) as "NPCs"... And they are so blinded by their arrogance that they have not understood that other nations have pride and will defend themselves when attacked. In the context of this trade war, I'd argue that the unity of Canadians and Mexicans, having been attacked, has always been an underrated factor. Pushing back is a 85+% issue for their leaders, whereas for Trump, most Americans don't even support these tariffs.

Click on the post for all the screenshots... But Lutnick literally begging Doug Ford for an offramp... My favorite part is Lutnick talking about how comments by Canadian politicians are being taken as personal attacks... Especially given Trump calling Canada the 51st State and referring to PM Trudeau as "Governor"

I have no idea if the pullback is real or not, but can somebody explain what we are getting out of any of this?

Wow

Excuse me, but what gives Cruella DeVil here the right to judge anyone who went and served this country?

Where I've landed on NAFTA and free trade is that while it may not have been the best outcome at the time, and certainly more needs to be done to ameliorate the damage to the communities that it impacted, it *did* create jobs and change the nature of this economy. And actions like the ones Trump is pursuing (and Golden is apparently cool with), misguided as they are, will create a lot of short term collateral damage. And we need to be honest about that....

OK, but just realize that Golden's views will cause an immense amount of short term pain with zero guarantee of success.

Granted some of this posturing is likely because he represents the Trumpiest district in Congress and he wants to remain in Congress... But what he doesn't get is that while NAFTA and free trade did have negative impacts on a lot of areas (including the one I grew up in), it also did create jobs as well. And we are now 30 years on... our economy is adapted to the point where there are jobs today that rely on free trade. Metro Detroit is heavily reliant on the ability trade across the border. Not to mention Golden's district in Northern Maine. And it's not a small thing to detonate a nuke like this on our current reality without any guarantee of success... To be honest, the whole vision Congressman Golden has shared above seems destined to failure in practice.

Have these people lost their minds?

It's just so dishonest as well. His party (as well as certain posters around here) derided any context to the inflationary issues we faced in 2022 as being "elitism", yet they get to apparently turn around and tell us to sit down and shut up while Trump deliberately goes and makes moves that will make prices soar and drive us into a recession. Just bottomless contempt for all these guys

Because the impacts of natural gas will be a bigger impact on consumers. At least my interpretation I live in IL... Most of our electricity (IIRC) is produced here, a byproduct of having the largest fleet of nuclear power plants in the country. Gas and oil, OTOH, we are very leveraged by Canada. Trump's people understand that and want to reduce the blowback. It's still insanely stupid regardless, but that's the logic I'm seeing

I understand Justin... No need to apologize

I don't think there's anything they could have said or done to stop this.... in part, Trump was boxed in by his previous posture on tariffs. You cannot keep making these threats over and over and over again and come out looking strong if you never eventually follow through on them. But also there was nothing they could offer him because the threats, in and of themselves, are all nonsensical and aren't really tied to any actual concrete outcomes. The man just wants to do tariffs and think's they're great for all of us.... he's high on his own supply.

The Trump tax will soon becoming to Michigander's electrical bills

Not just the auto industry, who will take it harder than anyone, but retail in general are deeply deeply exposed to risk here.

Also notable: Costco outrunning Target and Walmart

Real "Great Leap Forward" vibes....