Trump is going to take credit for it, but it had nothing to do with him. I read that it was a miscalculation by OPEC nations of increasing production in the face of a World wide economic slowdown
Trump announces tariffs ranging from 10% to 49% for dozens of countries
- Thread starter Elim Garak
- Start date
kevin arnold
Superstar
CreepyMcCreeperson
Veteran
Bro is funny as hell!
Commented on Sun Apr 6 14:29:28 2025 UTC
When you find out how he became a supposed tariff guru it makes all this worse.
Rachel Maddow Explains the ‘Ridiculous’ True Story That Inspired Trump’s Tariffs Plan | Video
When you find out how he became a supposed tariff guru it makes all this worse.
Rachel Maddow Explains the ‘Ridiculous’ True Story That Inspired Trump’s Tariffs Plan | Video
│
│
│ Commented on Sun Apr 6 15:28:51 2025 UTC
│
│ Jeeeeesus Christ. So, Navarro’s book and theory of tariffs is based on cites to an expert named “Ron Vara” who (1) doesn’t exist, and (2) is an anagram of “Navarro”. Just the absolute stupidest fukking people.
│
│
│ Jeeeeesus Christ. So, Navarro’s book and theory of tariffs is based on cites to an expert named “Ron Vara” who (1) doesn’t exist, and (2) is an anagram of “Navarro”. Just the absolute stupidest fukking people.
│
│ │
│ │
│ │ Commented on Sun Apr 6 15:39:15 2025 UTC
│ │
│ │ Oh it gets worse.
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │ After 2 minutes of explanation about how they came up with the tariff values, claiming that 'its all very simple', about 3 minutes in he boils it down to:
│ │
│ │
│ │ The trade deficit is the sum of all cheating
│ │
│ │
│ │ Perhaps the most idiotic sentence ever made in the history of economics.
│ │
│ │ The man is an idiot, hired by a stubborn moron, who have direct control of the world economy, and they're all too stupid and stubborn to admit they're stupid and wrong.
│ │
│ │ The world economy is fukked.
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │ Oh it gets worse.
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │ After 2 minutes of explanation about how they came up with the tariff values, claiming that 'its all very simple', about 3 minutes in he boils it down to:
│ │
│ │
│ │ The trade deficit is the sum of all cheating
│ │
│ │
│ │ Perhaps the most idiotic sentence ever made in the history of economics.
│ │
│ │ The man is an idiot, hired by a stubborn moron, who have direct control of the world economy, and they're all too stupid and stubborn to admit they're stupid and wrong.
│ │
│ │ The world economy is fukked.
│ │
│ │
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ │ │ Commented on Sun Apr 6 15:52:00 2025 UTC
│ │ │
│ │ │ The trade deficit is the sum of all cheating
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ │ │ Well, obviously. It's impossible for any economy to want American products less than America wants theirs because America is number 1. Why would America ever need anything from anyone else? /s
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ │ │ The trade deficit is the sum of all cheating
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ │ │ Well, obviously. It's impossible for any economy to want American products less than America wants theirs because America is number 1. Why would America ever need anything from anyone else? /s
│ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ Commented on Sun Apr 6 15:56:47 2025 UTC
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ I'm imagining trying to explain it.
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ America big. America need lot of things!
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ I'm imagining trying to explain it.
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ America big. America need lot of things!
│ │ │ │
Commented on Sun Apr 6 14:29:28 2025 UTC
When you find out how he became a supposed tariff guru it makes all this worse.
Rachel Maddow Explains the ‘Ridiculous’ True Story That Inspired Trump’s Tariffs Plan | Video
│
││ Commented on Sun Apr 6 15:28:51 2025 UTC
│
│ Jeeeeesus Christ. So, Navarro’s book and theory of tariffs is based on cites to an expert named “Ron Vara” who (1) doesn’t exist, and (2) is an anagram of “Navarro”. Just the absolute stupidest fukking people.
│
│ │
│ ││ │ Commented on Sun Apr 6 15:39:15 2025 UTC
│ │
│ │ Oh it gets worse.
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │ After 2 minutes of explanation about how they came up with the tariff values, claiming that 'its all very simple', about 3 minutes in he boils it down to:
│ │
│ │
│ │ The trade deficit is the sum of all cheating
│ │
│ │
│ │ Perhaps the most idiotic sentence ever made in the history of economics.
│ │
│ │ The man is an idiot, hired by a stubborn moron, who have direct control of the world economy, and they're all too stupid and stubborn to admit they're stupid and wrong.
│ │
│ │ The world economy is fukked.
│ │
│ │
│ │ │
│ │ ││ │ │ Commented on Sun Apr 6 15:52:00 2025 UTC
│ │ │
│ │ │ The trade deficit is the sum of all cheating
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ │ │ Well, obviously. It's impossible for any economy to want American products less than America wants theirs because America is number 1. Why would America ever need anything from anyone else? /s
│ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ ││ │ │ │ Commented on Sun Apr 6 15:56:47 2025 UTC
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ I'm imagining trying to explain it.
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ America big. America need lot of things!
│ │ │ │
Nothing to be afraid of here. Just the Treasury Secretary trying to quit.
Donald Trump's tariffs spark panic inside the White House as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly wants to quit amid market mayhem
As the global economy braces for potential further escalations, all eyes remain on how Trumps policies will shape the financial landscape in the coming months.
Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social)
Is this what “bending the knee” looks like. 🤦🏻♂️
bsky.app
1/35
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
Is this what “bending the knee” looks like.
2/35
repetitiveuser.bsky.social
bsky.app/profile/repe...
3/35
perryds.bsky.social
4/35
sandy2950.bsky.social
Know that we know tariffs are taxes plain simple, when is someone going to call this administration's use of these tariffs what they really are- EXTORTION, on a GLOBAL scale!!
5/35
joescuba54.bsky.social
sounds like a good idea since those companies helped put 47 back in office
6/35
boleosam.bsky.social
We in EU are not bending the knee! Statement of our German Commerce Minister right now: US is on the weak side not EU
7/35
murmorana.bsky.social
That is not all of the cards up the sleeve… EU can also hit the tech bros hard in ways which may not impact the pocket of EU consumers
8/35
islanderinvests.bsky.social
The EU should’ve developed its own semis/smartphone/GPUs/search/cloud etc. monopolies years ago and ditched the unscrupulous and unpredictable USA for good.
9/35
frip2.bsky.social
They will now
10/35
ivordavies.bsky.social
Canada is ALREADY doing this.
11/35
missingthept.bsky.social
bsky.app/profile/miss...
12/35
bhcphd.bsky.social
Are we sure? Because reliable sources say that, while he was winning a golf tournament that was not rigged in any way, Trump was also making deals like no one has ever seen with all the other countries in the world in return for lifting the tariffs. And also the tariffs will never be lifted.
13/35
uchusky23.com
What a lose lose situation Trump created. Unserious
14/35
bluetsunami15.bsky.social
15/35
blanketcoverage.bsky.social
Trump’s hubris is amazing! The greater fool!
16/35
sollycheesecake.bsky.social
Do it.
17/35
neil-lewis.bsky.social
Bye bye Starlink.
18/35
democracyxxxx.bsky.social
The EU Bazooka is coming - soon
19/35
mglovesfun.bsky.social
I'm sure the markets will love this.
20/35
milwaukee2024.bsky.social
I think the EU will do what this congress won't. Impeach him.
21/35
soundchippy.bsky.social
What a time to be alive!
22/35
670rv.bsky.social
Hope they carry forward with it!
Make sure US dumps Trump/ Musk/ Vance through an impeachment!
And the oil falls further - to tank esp Russian economy - about 35% of their Budget runs on oil - and their war in Ukraine collapses and Putin gets kicked out with a violent revolution
23/35
wallawalla-99.bsky.social
They should 100 percent do this.
The USA is an existential threat.
24/35
klk466.bsky.social
I hope they don’t cave. The only way people will get their heads out of their asses is for to effect them. Sad to say.
25/35
hey.rupert.murdochbait.click
That sounds more like a threat.
Talking about your weapons is generally more on the hostile end of the scale than subservient.
26/35
ehnforcer.bsky.social
Do it.
27/35
floriduhtom.bsky.social
that is what fukk Trumpy looks like
28/35
megabeth18.bsky.social
As they keep saying
“This is DELIBERATE “
29/35
jake200.bsky.social
Bye bye Microsoft.
30/35
ianrobo.bsky.social
What could you replace it with though
31/35
subatomicash.bsky.social
But we are great again!
32/35
deaddropholiday.bsky.social
The financial double-tap to the head.
33/35
44lights.bsky.social
This…could…be…very…bad.
34/35
fisak.bsky.social
When did the EU elect Mance Rayder, King beyond the Wall?
35/35
stlouisishome.bsky.social
No... This is US sanctions.
To post tweets in this format, more info here: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-the-coli-megathread.984734/post-52211196
carlquintanilla.bsky.socialIs this what “bending the knee” looks like.
2/35
repetitiveuser.bsky.socialbsky.app/profile/repe...
3/35
perryds.bsky.social
4/35
sandy2950.bsky.socialKnow that we know tariffs are taxes plain simple, when is someone going to call this administration's use of these tariffs what they really are- EXTORTION, on a GLOBAL scale!!
5/35
joescuba54.bsky.socialsounds like a good idea since those companies helped put 47 back in office
6/35
boleosam.bsky.socialWe in EU are not bending the knee! Statement of our German Commerce Minister right now: US is on the weak side not EU
7/35
murmorana.bsky.socialThat is not all of the cards up the sleeve… EU can also hit the tech bros hard in ways which may not impact the pocket of EU consumers
8/35
islanderinvests.bsky.socialThe EU should’ve developed its own semis/smartphone/GPUs/search/cloud etc. monopolies years ago and ditched the unscrupulous and unpredictable USA for good.
9/35
frip2.bsky.socialThey will now
10/35
ivordavies.bsky.socialCanada is ALREADY doing this.
11/35
missingthept.bsky.socialbsky.app/profile/miss...
12/35
bhcphd.bsky.socialAre we sure? Because reliable sources say that, while he was winning a golf tournament that was not rigged in any way, Trump was also making deals like no one has ever seen with all the other countries in the world in return for lifting the tariffs. And also the tariffs will never be lifted.
13/35
uchusky23.comWhat a lose lose situation Trump created. Unserious
14/35
bluetsunami15.bsky.social
15/35
blanketcoverage.bsky.socialTrump’s hubris is amazing! The greater fool!
16/35
sollycheesecake.bsky.socialDo it.
17/35
neil-lewis.bsky.socialBye bye Starlink.
18/35
democracyxxxx.bsky.socialThe EU Bazooka is coming - soon
19/35
mglovesfun.bsky.socialI'm sure the markets will love this.
20/35
milwaukee2024.bsky.socialI think the EU will do what this congress won't. Impeach him.
21/35
soundchippy.bsky.socialWhat a time to be alive!
22/35
670rv.bsky.socialHope they carry forward with it!
Make sure US dumps Trump/ Musk/ Vance through an impeachment!
And the oil falls further - to tank esp Russian economy - about 35% of their Budget runs on oil - and their war in Ukraine collapses and Putin gets kicked out with a violent revolution
23/35
wallawalla-99.bsky.socialThey should 100 percent do this.
The USA is an existential threat.
24/35
klk466.bsky.socialI hope they don’t cave. The only way people will get their heads out of their asses is for to effect them. Sad to say.
25/35
hey.rupert.murdochbait.clickThat sounds more like a threat.
Talking about your weapons is generally more on the hostile end of the scale than subservient.
26/35
ehnforcer.bsky.socialDo it.
27/35
floriduhtom.bsky.socialthat is what fukk Trumpy looks like
28/35
megabeth18.bsky.socialAs they keep saying
“This is DELIBERATE “
29/35
jake200.bsky.socialBye bye Microsoft.
30/35
ianrobo.bsky.socialWhat could you replace it with though
31/35
subatomicash.bsky.socialBut we are great again!
32/35
deaddropholiday.bsky.socialThe financial double-tap to the head.
33/35
44lights.bsky.socialThis…could…be…very…bad.
34/35
fisak.bsky.socialWhen did the EU elect Mance Rayder, King beyond the Wall?
35/35
stlouisishome.bsky.socialNo... This is US sanctions.
To post tweets in this format, more info here: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-the-coli-megathread.984734/post-52211196
Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social)
More #BendingTheKnee 🇩🇪 @bloomberg.com https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-07/germany-calls-for-strongest-tool-to-retaliate-against-us-tariffs-m96xrcbi
bsky.app
1/11
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
More #BendingTheKnee
@bloomberg.com
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Bluesky
2/11
44lights.bsky.social
Trump is playing poker with the US economy. He’s pushing his stack into the middle of the table and trying to bluff the world.
If they call him, he will just get up and walk away. He won’t care that he lost the house.
That’s our house. Not his. He’s gambling our future, our assets, not his.
3/11
oldfuddy.bsky.social
But "his stack" is our wealth[ well-being and future. Not his to gamble. Presidents should be caretakers and stewards of our well-being, not reckless, incompetent gamblers. Americans must pressure Congress for him to resign or be impeached.
4/11
wallawalla-99.bsky.social
I never thought I'd see the day
but I am now team Germany all the way
5/11
bestgardener.bsky.social
If you knew Germans, you’d understand how tough they are. They know what happened and refuse to allow it to happen again. I lived there for a while. Truly wonderful and wise people.
6/11
oldfuddy.bsky.social
Trump must resign #trumpresign
Bluesky
7/11
deewnuk.bsky.social
They should demand Trump and Musk be REMOVED
8/11
nsergioo.bsky.social
So they’re fixing the pipelines Biden bombed and cutting off overpriced LNG from the traitorous yankee mongrels?
9/11
nigelstead.bsky.social
Oompah music.
10/11
athletics12345.bsky.social
11/11
fenderbellybodine.bsky.social
::George Bush 9/11 meme:: "Sir, the nerds saying they will no longer be bullied."
To post tweets in this format, more info here: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-the-coli-megathread.984734/post-52211196
carlquintanilla.bsky.socialMore #BendingTheKnee
@bloomberg.com
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Bluesky
2/11
44lights.bsky.socialTrump is playing poker with the US economy. He’s pushing his stack into the middle of the table and trying to bluff the world.
If they call him, he will just get up and walk away. He won’t care that he lost the house.
That’s our house. Not his. He’s gambling our future, our assets, not his.
3/11
oldfuddy.bsky.socialBut "his stack" is our wealth[ well-being and future. Not his to gamble. Presidents should be caretakers and stewards of our well-being, not reckless, incompetent gamblers. Americans must pressure Congress for him to resign or be impeached.
4/11
wallawalla-99.bsky.socialI never thought I'd see the day
but I am now team Germany all the way
5/11
bestgardener.bsky.socialIf you knew Germans, you’d understand how tough they are. They know what happened and refuse to allow it to happen again. I lived there for a while. Truly wonderful and wise people.
6/11
oldfuddy.bsky.socialTrump must resign #trumpresign
Bluesky
7/11
deewnuk.bsky.socialThey should demand Trump and Musk be REMOVED
8/11
nsergioo.bsky.socialSo they’re fixing the pipelines Biden bombed and cutting off overpriced LNG from the traitorous yankee mongrels?
9/11
nigelstead.bsky.socialOompah music.
10/11
athletics12345.bsky.social11/11
fenderbellybodine.bsky.social::George Bush 9/11 meme:: "Sir, the nerds saying they will no longer be bullied."
To post tweets in this format, more info here: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-the-coli-megathread.984734/post-52211196
Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social)
What’s the opposite of bending the knee. 🇫🇷 @bloomberg.com https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-05/eu-answer-to-trump-may-involve-data-use-by-big-tech-france-says
bsky.app
1/12
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
What’s the opposite of bending the knee.
@bloomberg.com
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
2/12
mrxexon.bsky.social
Bending over...
3/12
gravitymike.bsky.social
Yes, stop the data collection - THAT is how Trump got into office, brainwashing Americans with targeted propaganda. It’s gotta start somewhere.
4/12
marley60.bsky.social
The EU is not gonna roll over and play dead. And neither is my country Canada.
5/12
chompytweets.bsky.social
fukk yeah! I want my portfolio to recover as much as everybody but people / institutions / countries need to stop capitulating to this madman and start fighting back unflinchingly right now. Hold strong and this guy will be a wounded lame duck soon enough.
6/12
ralphtheewiggum.bsky.social
I don’t think many ppl appreciate the true danger the US economy is in.
Trump has put us in a position to get slaughtered, w/ no clear path to recovery.
Cratering the government, universities, research, grants for infrastructure, making us toxic to immigrants of any kind and then these tariffs?
7/12
mister-sterling.bsky.social
The United States deserves every ounce of pain, suffering and death that is coming its way.
Death To AmeriKKKa.
8/12
ralphtheewiggum.bsky.social
That’s pretty cavalier. There are quite a few people that deserve everything that may be coming, but those people are at the back of a long line of hundreds of millions who will be devastated through no fault of their own. I can’t cheer that on.
9/12
andrewlevesque.bsky.social
The answer to trumpism is staring then US right in the face: opposition by our former allies...and the opposition by citizens in this nation as evidenced by the protests over the weekend...
10/12
prorelspectator.bsky.social
11/12
engineerhawk.bsky.social
There is no way Americans would accept tech monopolies from another country so why should they accept that from us? Lots of high margin dollar flow along with security and privacy vulnerabilities.
12/12
brewstate.bsky.social
Vive la révolution
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carlquintanilla.bsky.socialWhat’s the opposite of bending the knee.
@bloomberg.com
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
2/12
mrxexon.bsky.socialBending over...
3/12
gravitymike.bsky.socialYes, stop the data collection - THAT is how Trump got into office, brainwashing Americans with targeted propaganda. It’s gotta start somewhere.
4/12
marley60.bsky.socialThe EU is not gonna roll over and play dead. And neither is my country Canada.
5/12
chompytweets.bsky.socialfukk yeah! I want my portfolio to recover as much as everybody but people / institutions / countries need to stop capitulating to this madman and start fighting back unflinchingly right now. Hold strong and this guy will be a wounded lame duck soon enough.
6/12
ralphtheewiggum.bsky.socialI don’t think many ppl appreciate the true danger the US economy is in.
Trump has put us in a position to get slaughtered, w/ no clear path to recovery.
Cratering the government, universities, research, grants for infrastructure, making us toxic to immigrants of any kind and then these tariffs?
7/12
mister-sterling.bsky.socialThe United States deserves every ounce of pain, suffering and death that is coming its way.
Death To AmeriKKKa.
8/12
ralphtheewiggum.bsky.socialThat’s pretty cavalier. There are quite a few people that deserve everything that may be coming, but those people are at the back of a long line of hundreds of millions who will be devastated through no fault of their own. I can’t cheer that on.
9/12
andrewlevesque.bsky.socialThe answer to trumpism is staring then US right in the face: opposition by our former allies...and the opposition by citizens in this nation as evidenced by the protests over the weekend...
10/12
prorelspectator.bsky.social11/12
engineerhawk.bsky.socialThere is no way Americans would accept tech monopolies from another country so why should they accept that from us? Lots of high margin dollar flow along with security and privacy vulnerabilities.
12/12
brewstate.bsky.socialVive la révolution
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1/11
@KobeissiLetter
BREAKING: President Trump says if China does not withdraw their 34% tariff by April 8th, the US will impose an ADDITIONAL 50% tariff on China on April 9th.
2/11
@RyanFelder20
I better buy the last iPhone ever produced. iPhone 17 is no longer coming out at this rate.
3/11
@infraa_
Holy shyt lmfaooo
This is the wildest day ever
4/11
@JesusMartinezEZ
5/11
@lorenzonesso
6/11
@Fapital3
LMAOOO
7/11
@miladmirg
My bags are done for
8/11
@SanchezJElijah
This is good stuff guys.
9/11
@Walknonthemoon
This tariff policy rollout has issues
10/11
@Stocktrader
Don’t be a PANICAN
11/11
@Z_Humphries
Tariffs going crazy’s
To post tweets in this format, more info here: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-the-coli-megathread.984734/post-52211196
@KobeissiLetter
BREAKING: President Trump says if China does not withdraw their 34% tariff by April 8th, the US will impose an ADDITIONAL 50% tariff on China on April 9th.
2/11
@RyanFelder20
I better buy the last iPhone ever produced. iPhone 17 is no longer coming out at this rate.
3/11
@infraa_
Holy shyt lmfaooo
This is the wildest day ever
4/11
@JesusMartinezEZ
5/11
@lorenzonesso
6/11
@Fapital3
LMAOOO
7/11
@miladmirg
My bags are done for
8/11
@SanchezJElijah
This is good stuff guys.
9/11
@Walknonthemoon
This tariff policy rollout has issues
10/11
@Stocktrader
Don’t be a PANICAN
11/11
@Z_Humphries
Tariffs going crazy’s
To post tweets in this format, more info here: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-the-coli-megathread.984734/post-52211196
JuvenileHell
Veteran
someone is gonna clap this nikka
[Political™] Yesterday, for the first time in almost 30 years, Fox removed the market ticker showing Trump’s economic fallout in real time. Fox isn’t journalism. It’s state-run propaganda.
1/11
@marlene4719
For the first time in almost 30 years Fox removed the market ticker showing Trump‘s economic fallout in real time.
Fox isn’t journalism it’s state run propaganda.
2/11
@Jreilly122570
What this President has done is the greatest move for the American Worker. We have become a nation of Walmart cashiers after Clinton and NAFTA. We should all be thanking President Trump for what he has done for the working class of America. THANK YOU @realDonaldTrump
3/11
@marlene4719
And what exactly has he done for the working class? I’ll wait…
4/11
@ivanopanetti
While folks check their retirement accounts and wonder how they'll pay their bills next month, Trump tees off as if nothing else matters.
And Fox News? They're too busy refining his image and making him the new Jesus.
5/11
@Christo12919382
BAN FOX NEWS!
6/11
@mleiden47667361
I would guess that the market ticker is not showing again today.
7/11
@TrahanMerrilee
Hiding The Truth
8/11
@Lockhimupp
3/4 billion dollars says it all.
9/11
@mp152427
Joke
10/11
@MeyersonHe87500
I think she meant to say "BRASS," not gold
11/11
@Lindademocat
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Commented on Fri Apr 4 16:09:22 2025 UTC
This is DESPERATE. I can't find it now, but there was research that showed when Fox doesn't cover Trump related crises it actually hurts their viewership. People find out about a big thing, check other sources, say "holy shyt, why is Fox not covering this?!?" and maybe drift away from the network.
Fox works by SPINNING the bad news. That they can't even find a plausible spin on this one gives you a sense of how BAD-BAD-BAD it's going to be.
they are not a serious entity.
they already testified under oath that they are an ENTERTAINMENT channel after that Dominion Voting Machine Debacle where they lost a judgement for almost a billion for lying about the machines in the 2020 election.
Comedy Central 2
People were warned. 
Transcript: Trump Voters Suddenly Shocked at How Badly He Screwed Them
As farmers start realizing they will be devastated by Trump's tariffs, the author of a book about MAGA country digs into the true nature of his rural support—and how Democrats should try to reverse it.
newrepublic.com
The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent/
April 7, 2025
PODCAST
Transcript: Trump Voters Suddenly Shocked at How Badly He Screwed Them
As farmers start realizing they will be devastated by Trump's tariffs, the author of a book about MAGA country digs into the true nature of his rural support—and how Democrats should try to reverse it.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
The following is a lightly edited transcript of the April 7 episode of the Daily Blast podcast. Listen to it here.
Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.
The wreckage from President Trump’s sweeping new tariffs is only beginning, and some of the leading victims could be Trump’s own supporters. China has slapped enormous retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports—and the last time this happened, during Trump’s first term, U.S. farmers got absolutely slaughtered. There are indications that Trump’s escalating trade wars could be a whole lot worse for farmers this time around. So is there a point at which Trump’s own supporters could turn on him over the damage he’s unleashing? What other Trump-backing constituencies could get clobbered here? We’ve got a great guest to explain all this today: Tom Schaller, co-author of the book White Rural Rage with Paul Waldman. Really good to have you on, Tom.
Tom Schaller: Great to be here, Greg. Thanks for inviting me.
Sargent: According to multiple reports, farmers around the country fear that Trump’s trade wars could be much worse for them than last time. China just said they’re going forward with retaliatory tariffs of 34 percent on U.S. imports. China’s aiming directly for politically sensitive sectors for Trump like agriculture and industry. A lot of that is in Trump country. Tom, what do you make of this? How important are Chinese markets to rural America right now?
Schaller: Well, Chinese markets are important to all Americans, but the impact, as you suggest, may be disproportionate for rural communities. Rural communities, of course, are much more dependent on so-called extractive economies—mining and farming particularly—and they tend to have more heavy industry. That’s because you can’t have major plants and stuff in [urban] and suburban areas because of zoning and property cost reasons.
When Paul and I wrote the book, we got tons of angry emails from people, and the general form of that is I hope you don’t need to eat or drive your car ever again because energy is produced in rural America and all your food and meals are produced here. Now that’s a bit of a stretch. And of course, in any economy—so what? You can make potatoes and sell them to me, and people in the cities can make electronics and sell them to you. Nobody and no liberal or no Democrat ever says to rural America, Hey, you don’t make MRIs or put people through MRIs, you got to come into the big city and see the doctor so I hope you don’t get sick, because that’s how an economy works. We don’t expect every community to make every product.
Because extractive industries are disproportionately located in rural communities, and because rural Americans disproportionately rely on those commodities, when developing countries like China still need things like food, the same people who have been yelling at my co-author Paul Waldman—whom you know well—and me, saying, Hey, I hope you don’t need to rely on food, are going to be the same people bearing not all but a disproportionate brunt of tariffs if they stay in place, like the ones that Trump is going to impose on China and the reciprocal response which China has already announced.
Sargent: Well, according to the American Farm Bureau of Federation, underscoring your point, more than 20 percent of farm income comes from exports. The last time this happened, farmers got hurt badly by Chinese retaliatory tariffs which were aimed at U.S. exports like soybeans, corn, and wheat. And as far as I can tell, the farm economy is actually weaker now, partly because of that. Can you recount what happened last time Trump did this and China retaliated?
Schaller: Yeah. So Trump put tariffs on a variety of products, and China retaliated. That had an adverse effect on American farmers. What happened was Trump, who of course declared that trade wars are easy to win.... I guess they are easy to win if you don’t mention the fact that you end up having to pass a bill with something like $30 billion in bailouts to farmers to compensate, essentially subsidize the losses they endured from decreased demand for their products because of the reciprocal tariffs that other countries put on you.
I think Trump, as you know, is a guy who views the world transactionally, and he projects his view onto everybody else. What he believes is that every negotiation, every deal by definition has to be zero-sum. It can’t be non-zero-sum; it can’t be collectively good for both sides. So that means there’s got to be a winner, and there’s got to be a loser. And Donald Trump never loses, right? He’s always got to be the winner, and he assumes that the person on the side is always going to buckle, is always going to give in, and that they’re not going to respond in kind. And he’s already learned....I don’t know if he did learn, but he should have already learned from the first-term experiment here that other countries aren’t going to take this lying down.
China’s a major economy. They’re going to reciprocate in kind, and it’s going to extract costs from your domestic producers. And then you’re going to have two choices. They’re either going to go bankrupt—which is probably what the Farm Bureau is implying, Greg. It weakens the industry because some of the producers end up not recovering and having to go out of business. Or you have to bail them out, which means taking money out of the Treasury—money you could have just given to them as a direct subsidy without having the tariffs in the first place. So you’re just spending money to pay down the cost of the tariffs that you imposed.
Sargent: Speaking of Trump’s zero-sum worldview in which there are only winners and losers, he’s already raging about what China did with its retaliatory tariffs. On Truth Social in all caps on Friday, he said, “CHINA PLAYED IT WRONG, THEY PANICKED, THE ONE THING THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO DO!” Now, I don’t really claim to be a China expert, but panic isn’t the kind of thing that they do. They seem to be pretty deliberate in thinking this type of stuff through. And as you point out, this happened once before, and their retaliation actually did successfully from their point of view target Trump country. Here though, Trump is trying to make it look as if China is already losing because everything at all times always has to revolve around his infallibility and dominance.
Schaller: Everybody knows that a bully is really just a coward with a rich daddy and a big microphone and a fancy car. And of course, Trump is both of those things: a bully who had a rich daddy and a big mouth. But inside, he is just a coward. And the coward usually picks on the weak. They usually slam the kids up against the locker who are too weak to do anything and don’t have enough friends because they may back down. When you put tariffs on a tiny little country that relies on only a couple of industries, you could devastate an entire country because they don’t have the power economically to respond.
China is not one of those countries, Greg. China is a major growing force. And when they respond, you feel that. You’re not beating up the wimpiest little kid who’s three years behind you and is a college freshman. You’re picking on another senior who’s across the line from you on the varsity football team.
Sargent: Underscoring the point is the fact that, as you point out, the government last time spent tens of billions of dollars to bail out farmers. Now the Trump administration is reportedly mulling another aid package for farmers. Now this is a tacit admission that they know their policies will absolutely devastate farm country. This time, we’re going to have many more retaliatory tariffs from many other countries because our tariffs are much broader as well. Is it really going to be possible to bail out farmers this time, given how much worse it could be?
Schaller: First of all, it could be difficult because it’s expensive. But to your point, if they got to do selective bailouts for all these industries that are severely hampered, and even if they start with just the industries that are in the most favorable parts, the most reddish parts of America, it’s still going to be costly for them to do it. There’s a real political opportunity here for the Democrats to say something like, You’ve got Elon Musk going around with his little DOGE marauders trying to save $10 billion here and five billion here and sometimes only a few million here and there. And every time you got to create a bailout because of retaliatory tariffs, you’re just eating away at all that supposed savings from waste and abuse because you’re having to pour it right back out of the Treasury to bail out industries that are otherwise going to collapse under the pressure of the retaliatory tariffs, whether they come from China or whether they come from Europe or whether they come from South America. There’s an opportunity to point out that whatever money we’ve been saving is going to be poured right back in.
Now, Pete Navarro, as you know, has projected that the new tariffs, if they stay in place, are going to generate $600 to $700 billion in revenues annually. I did some quick math before I came on. Last year, our federal revenues were $4.9 trillion—let’s call it $5 trillion. The share of that that’s generated by tariffs is 1.7 percent—let’s round that to 2 percent to make the math easy. Two percent of $5 trillion is $100 billion.
They’re claiming, though most economists say they’re exaggerating, $600 to $700 billion in new tariffs.
And I suppose Trump could say, Well, the new tariff money that I’m going to generate is going to offset any bailouts. But of course, that money actually comes from us anyway, Greg. That’s just tariffs as a taxation. You’re really just moving money around to pay people, and they’re going to pay more in retail prices for a variety of things because of the tariffs we’re imposing. Then you’re going to have to use that money to bail out the higher cost or the lost sales from the retaliatory tariffs place on us. So we’re just moving money around, and it’s really extraordinarily stupid and inefficient.
Sargent: Well, exactly. Tariffs are a tax on consumption in the United States, and the people who pay that are working-class and middle-class consumers. When Trump says, We’re going to have $600, $700 billion in revenues, and also, Watch me extend my tax cuts for the very rich, he’s explicitly saying that he’s taking money from the poor and giving to the rich. He’s explicitly saying that he’s shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to the poor and middle class. And yes, I agree. Democrats have a huge opening. I think they should say it that way. They should go out into rural America and say, Trump is screwing you to give himself and all his rich pals a big tax cut.
Schaller: And it’s not just rural Americans but also working-class Americans who live in cities and suburbs who have jobs around the median household income of $55,000–$65,000 a year. Any sales tax is regressive because a rich man and a poor man pay the same essentially flat tax. Remember Herman Cain, the old 9–9–9? Any sales tax is inherently regressive.
Sargent: You guys wrote a good book about how rural America is hurting itself serially decade after decade by not holding Republican leaders accountable for what their policies have done to the residents of those places. Now, Trump might have the most support in rural America of any politician in many decades, right? Yet at the same time, he’s hurt them enormously—from Covid denial and failure causing tens or even hundreds of thousands of needless deaths in Trump country to these tariffs. How do you account for this disconnect? What are you and I missing here?
Schaller: Well, Paul and I wrestled with this at the end of the book. It’s convenient to just lean on Tom Frank’s argument from What’s the Matter with Kansas?—a very important book that was read about 20 years ago and inspired a previous book I wrote, Whistling Past Dixie—because there’s this notion that people are voting against their economic interests. And there’s certainly some truth to that, but I don’t think necessarily rural voters or conservative voters are always voting against their economic interest. Or if they are, they feel that that’s offset by the fact that they’re voting for their social and cultural interests. For example, they believe abortion is murder, so they don’t care if it costs them out of their pocket to save the lives of unborn babies.
When we say they’re voting against their interests, I think we have to be very clear. I don’t think when they vote for somebody like Trump, or George W. Bush for that matter or Mitt Romney, they’re voting against many of their social and cultural interests. They may simply apply greater salience or weight to that than they do their ability to cover their health care costs or their ability to limit their co-pays and out-of-pocket expenses or their tax rates or their local industries.
On the economic side of the equation, I do think they are voting, in many cases, against their economic interest. And this is a serious problem. And I think Democrats and liberals are on the horns of a dilemma between saying, Ha ha ha, FAFO, you fukked around and now you found out, and, You vote for what you got and you got what you voted for, and, as Mencken said, You’re going to get your democracy good and hard here, which is not a very empathetic or liberal attitude in the broadest sense. But of course, these people are voting against the economic interests of the rest of America and denigrating suburbanites and urbanites and criticizing them. They would certainly take their victory laps of owning the libs. I don’t think we should have retaliatory vindictive, vengeful attitudes, but I do think Democrats should point out these inconsistencies in and after to try to claw back.
Sadly, however, because of racial resentments and because of their cultural attachments, it might move the dial a little bit with white rural voters but it’s really probably not going to move it that much. I hate to be grim and dismal about it, but there’s no real evidence to suggest that they’re going to be moved out. They’re like dogs on a bone with a lot of these cultural and social issues and their belief that cities get all the money and everybody’s looking down on them and that they pay taxes and it all goes to minorities for Obama phones. You just can’t convince them otherwise on this stuff, so they continue to vote for the people who sell them those red-meat cultural politics.
Sargent: Well, that brings me to the final question, which is the age-old one. Does an epic screwing over of farm country, of rural America, of Trump country by Donald Trump through these tariffs open the door to Democrats starting to get back some of these voters? You sounded pretty skeptical there, but you don’t really have to move the needle much. And all indications now are that Democrats are going already deep into red country really trying to talk to these voters about what’s happening with Donald Trump and DOGE and Elon Musk. They’re holding town halls in some of these places. I think there’s the capacity to move the needle a little bit. What are the prospects for that?
Schaller: Well, maybe they move the needle a little bit because Trump has reached maximum Republican support in rural areas, whether it’s rural whites or rural nonwhites. But to peg your question to a part of the previous question that I didn’t answer on Covid, the reason I’m a little bit grim about it is because after the vaccine was available in 2021, during the first wave after vaccines, the Delta wave that summer, it was very clear who got sick and hospitalized and died. And it was in the counties that were the Trumpiest counties, because those counties had the lowest vaccination rates, because they believed all of these scurrilous conspiracies about how the vaccines don’t work or the vaccines actually give you Covid. They didn’t want to wear masks.
So even though rural America has a built-in social distancing advantage....People literally live far away from each other; they don’t get on trains and buses and commute; they don’t live in stacked apartment buildings like I do here in Washington, D.C. They should have had the lowest rates. They did have lower rates before the vaccine, but they should have had even lower rates after the vaccine as long as they took the vaccine. But no. What happened? The rural counties had 2.4 times the death rates of the national average. And compared to city counties, it was 3–1 or 4–1 depending on which counties of reference point. They died at three to four times the rate—literally tens of thousands of rural Americans, excessive rural Americans died—because of Trump, because of their belief that Covid was a hoax, because of all the misinformation about Dr. Fauci and the “Fauci ouchie,” and because of listening to figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene. And Trump took the vaccine. He told them. MAGA conspiracy fuel theories about the virus and about the safety of it literally led to excessive deaths in rural America.
If you look at the charts of Trump support and rurality, the more rural the area, the more they support Trump. And then if you look at those same charts and they track rurality with vaccine, it’s just the opposite. So the Trumpier the county, the less likely people took the vaccine and therefore the highest hospitalizations and death rates. Rural Americans are making decisions and have voted for Trump to bring this back to tariffs. They’re making decisions that don’t just affect their communities; they affect other communities and other industries that are parallel or adjacent. So now, it’s an economic murder-suicide when you make these decisions that don’t just hurt your bottom line, your finances, your ability to pay for Johnny’s braces or Joni’s summer camp but are affecting industries and communities and devastating your neighbors—including your neighbors who didn’t vote for Trump, especially your nonwhite rural neighbors.
Sargent: So Tom, how should Democrats talk to rural Americans about this? How do they go into red America, into some of these swingy House districts, some of these red states, some of these red House districts, which I think are going to be in play in 2026, and say what you’re saying in a way that makes it possible to win over two, three, four points among those demographics? How do they talk about the tariffs? How do they talk about Trump? What do they say?
Schaller: I think they try to talk in the same language that Trump talked about during the election, right? And maybe like Trump, they exaggerate a little bit about the prices of things. Trump has lied consistently. He said the unemployment rate under Obama was 42 percent in one tweet, and he says Biden created the worst economy in American history, even though The Economist magazine, no liberal rag, said our economy was “the envy of the world” by the end of the Biden administration. It wasn’t perfect, but we did manage inflation better than any other Western European democracy. We created 700,00o industrial jobs. So go in there and frankly scare them with stories about the economic consequences.
The problem, Greg, is where they get their information. I spent time in rural Pennsylvania the weekend before the election and in places like Cumberland and Lancaster. We didn’t see Republicans out in the streets, because they don’t really do field campaigns anymore. It’s all digital and electronic and through people’s phones, not through people’s front doors. It’s really hard to get face-to-face with people anymore. So Democrats got to get on these local radio shows. They have to create their own local radio shows. They have to get on these podcasts because they’re living in an informational vacuum or a silo, so they’re not hearing these messages anyway.
As we’ve seen on Bluesky today, Fox News and OANN are not even putting the market reports up there. They’re not even showing the Dow, the S&P, and the NASDAQ on their tickers because they know that their listeners and viewers cannot handle any negative news. They need to be constantly reinforced with nonstop pro-red, pro-Republican, pro-Trump, pro-MAGA news because they can’t handle the truth, as Jack Nicholson would say. We need to break through that and force them to listen to alternative messages, but that is a really, really difficult nut to crack.
Sargent: It sure is, and it just seems to get more difficult with every passing year and every passing cycle. Tom Schaller, it’s so good to talk to you, man. Thanks for coming on.
Schaller: Great to be here. Cheers, Greg.
Sargent: You’ve been listening to The Daily Blast with me, your host, Greg Sargent. The Daily Blast is a New Republic podcast and is produced by Riley Fessler and the DSR Network.
And I suppose Trump could say, Well, the new tariff money that I’m going to generate is going to offset any bailouts. But of course, that money actually comes from us anyway, Greg. That’s just tariffs as a taxation. You’re really just moving money around to pay people, and they’re going to pay more in retail prices for a variety of things because of the tariffs we’re imposing. Then you’re going to have to use that money to bail out the higher cost or the lost sales from the retaliatory tariffs place on us. So we’re just moving money around, and it’s really extraordinarily stupid and inefficient.
Sargent: Well, exactly. Tariffs are a tax on consumption in the United States, and the people who pay that are working-class and middle-class consumers. When Trump says, We’re going to have $600, $700 billion in revenues, and also, Watch me extend my tax cuts for the very rich, he’s explicitly saying that he’s taking money from the poor and giving to the rich. He’s explicitly saying that he’s shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to the poor and middle class. And yes, I agree. Democrats have a huge opening. I think they should say it that way. They should go out into rural America and say, Trump is screwing you to give himself and all his rich pals a big tax cut.
Schaller: And it’s not just rural Americans but also working-class Americans who live in cities and suburbs who have jobs around the median household income of $55,000–$65,000 a year. Any sales tax is regressive because a rich man and a poor man pay the same essentially flat tax. Remember Herman Cain, the old 9–9–9? Any sales tax is inherently regressive.
Sargent: You guys wrote a good book about how rural America is hurting itself serially decade after decade by not holding Republican leaders accountable for what their policies have done to the residents of those places. Now, Trump might have the most support in rural America of any politician in many decades, right? Yet at the same time, he’s hurt them enormously—from Covid denial and failure causing tens or even hundreds of thousands of needless deaths in Trump country to these tariffs. How do you account for this disconnect? What are you and I missing here?
Schaller: Well, Paul and I wrestled with this at the end of the book. It’s convenient to just lean on Tom Frank’s argument from What’s the Matter with Kansas?—a very important book that was read about 20 years ago and inspired a previous book I wrote, Whistling Past Dixie—because there’s this notion that people are voting against their economic interests. And there’s certainly some truth to that, but I don’t think necessarily rural voters or conservative voters are always voting against their economic interest. Or if they are, they feel that that’s offset by the fact that they’re voting for their social and cultural interests. For example, they believe abortion is murder, so they don’t care if it costs them out of their pocket to save the lives of unborn babies.
When we say they’re voting against their interests, I think we have to be very clear. I don’t think when they vote for somebody like Trump, or George W. Bush for that matter or Mitt Romney, they’re voting against many of their social and cultural interests. They may simply apply greater salience or weight to that than they do their ability to cover their health care costs or their ability to limit their co-pays and out-of-pocket expenses or their tax rates or their local industries.
On the economic side of the equation, I do think they are voting, in many cases, against their economic interest. And this is a serious problem. And I think Democrats and liberals are on the horns of a dilemma between saying, Ha ha ha, FAFO, you fukked around and now you found out, and, You vote for what you got and you got what you voted for, and, as Mencken said, You’re going to get your democracy good and hard here, which is not a very empathetic or liberal attitude in the broadest sense. But of course, these people are voting against the economic interests of the rest of America and denigrating suburbanites and urbanites and criticizing them. They would certainly take their victory laps of owning the libs. I don’t think we should have retaliatory vindictive, vengeful attitudes, but I do think Democrats should point out these inconsistencies in and after to try to claw back.
Sadly, however, because of racial resentments and because of their cultural attachments, it might move the dial a little bit with white rural voters but it’s really probably not going to move it that much. I hate to be grim and dismal about it, but there’s no real evidence to suggest that they’re going to be moved out. They’re like dogs on a bone with a lot of these cultural and social issues and their belief that cities get all the money and everybody’s looking down on them and that they pay taxes and it all goes to minorities for Obama phones. You just can’t convince them otherwise on this stuff, so they continue to vote for the people who sell them those red-meat cultural politics.
Sargent: Well, that brings me to the final question, which is the age-old one. Does an epic screwing over of farm country, of rural America, of Trump country by Donald Trump through these tariffs open the door to Democrats starting to get back some of these voters? You sounded pretty skeptical there, but you don’t really have to move the needle much. And all indications now are that Democrats are going already deep into red country really trying to talk to these voters about what’s happening with Donald Trump and DOGE and Elon Musk. They’re holding town halls in some of these places. I think there’s the capacity to move the needle a little bit. What are the prospects for that?
Schaller: Well, maybe they move the needle a little bit because Trump has reached maximum Republican support in rural areas, whether it’s rural whites or rural nonwhites. But to peg your question to a part of the previous question that I didn’t answer on Covid, the reason I’m a little bit grim about it is because after the vaccine was available in 2021, during the first wave after vaccines, the Delta wave that summer, it was very clear who got sick and hospitalized and died. And it was in the counties that were the Trumpiest counties, because those counties had the lowest vaccination rates, because they believed all of these scurrilous conspiracies about how the vaccines don’t work or the vaccines actually give you Covid. They didn’t want to wear masks.
So even though rural America has a built-in social distancing advantage....People literally live far away from each other; they don’t get on trains and buses and commute; they don’t live in stacked apartment buildings like I do here in Washington, D.C. They should have had the lowest rates. They did have lower rates before the vaccine, but they should have had even lower rates after the vaccine as long as they took the vaccine. But no. What happened? The rural counties had 2.4 times the death rates of the national average. And compared to city counties, it was 3–1 or 4–1 depending on which counties of reference point. They died at three to four times the rate—literally tens of thousands of rural Americans, excessive rural Americans died—because of Trump, because of their belief that Covid was a hoax, because of all the misinformation about Dr. Fauci and the “Fauci ouchie,” and because of listening to figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene. And Trump took the vaccine. He told them. MAGA conspiracy fuel theories about the virus and about the safety of it literally led to excessive deaths in rural America.
If you look at the charts of Trump support and rurality, the more rural the area, the more they support Trump. And then if you look at those same charts and they track rurality with vaccine, it’s just the opposite. So the Trumpier the county, the less likely people took the vaccine and therefore the highest hospitalizations and death rates. Rural Americans are making decisions and have voted for Trump to bring this back to tariffs. They’re making decisions that don’t just affect their communities; they affect other communities and other industries that are parallel or adjacent. So now, it’s an economic murder-suicide when you make these decisions that don’t just hurt your bottom line, your finances, your ability to pay for Johnny’s braces or Joni’s summer camp but are affecting industries and communities and devastating your neighbors—including your neighbors who didn’t vote for Trump, especially your nonwhite rural neighbors.
Sargent: So Tom, how should Democrats talk to rural Americans about this? How do they go into red America, into some of these swingy House districts, some of these red states, some of these red House districts, which I think are going to be in play in 2026, and say what you’re saying in a way that makes it possible to win over two, three, four points among those demographics? How do they talk about the tariffs? How do they talk about Trump? What do they say?
Schaller: I think they try to talk in the same language that Trump talked about during the election, right? And maybe like Trump, they exaggerate a little bit about the prices of things. Trump has lied consistently. He said the unemployment rate under Obama was 42 percent in one tweet, and he says Biden created the worst economy in American history, even though The Economist magazine, no liberal rag, said our economy was “the envy of the world” by the end of the Biden administration. It wasn’t perfect, but we did manage inflation better than any other Western European democracy. We created 700,00o industrial jobs. So go in there and frankly scare them with stories about the economic consequences.
The problem, Greg, is where they get their information. I spent time in rural Pennsylvania the weekend before the election and in places like Cumberland and Lancaster. We didn’t see Republicans out in the streets, because they don’t really do field campaigns anymore. It’s all digital and electronic and through people’s phones, not through people’s front doors. It’s really hard to get face-to-face with people anymore. So Democrats got to get on these local radio shows. They have to create their own local radio shows. They have to get on these podcasts because they’re living in an informational vacuum or a silo, so they’re not hearing these messages anyway.
As we’ve seen on Bluesky today, Fox News and OANN are not even putting the market reports up there. They’re not even showing the Dow, the S&P, and the NASDAQ on their tickers because they know that their listeners and viewers cannot handle any negative news. They need to be constantly reinforced with nonstop pro-red, pro-Republican, pro-Trump, pro-MAGA news because they can’t handle the truth, as Jack Nicholson would say. We need to break through that and force them to listen to alternative messages, but that is a really, really difficult nut to crack.
Sargent: It sure is, and it just seems to get more difficult with every passing year and every passing cycle. Tom Schaller, it’s so good to talk to you, man. Thanks for coming on.
Schaller: Great to be here. Cheers, Greg.
Sargent: You’ve been listening to The Daily Blast with me, your host, Greg Sargent. The Daily Blast is a New Republic podcast and is produced by Riley Fessler and the DSR Network.
Here Are the Places Where the Recession Has Already Begun
Towns near the Canadian border are suffering.
www.theatlantic.com
Ideas
Here Are the Places Where the Recession Has Already Begun
Towns near the Canadian border are suffering.
By Annie Lowrey
Katsarov Luna / Bloomberg / Getty
April 7, 2025, 7 AM ET
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Last month, Nicholas Gilbert received a delivery of grain for the 1,400 cows he tends at his dairy farm in Potsdam, New York, 20 miles from the Ontario border. The feed came with a surprise tariff of $2,200 tacked on. “We have small margins,” he told me. “I had a contracted price on that grain delivered to my barn. It was supposed to be so much per ton. And they added that tariff right on top because it comes from a Canadian feed mill.”
Gilbert cannot increase the price of the milk he sells, which is set by the local co-op. He cannot feed his cows less food. He cannot buy feed from another supplier; there aren’t any nearby, and getting it from farther away would be more expensive. When he got the delivery, he stared at the tariff for a while. Shouldn’t his Canadian supplier have been responsible for paying it? “I’m not even sure it’s legal! We contracted for the price on delivery! If your price of fuel goes up or your truck breaks down, that’s not my problem! That’s what the contract’s for.”
But the tariff was legal, and it was Gilbert’s responsibility. The dairy farmer is one of tens of thousands of American business owners caught in a spiraling trade war, and lives in one area of the United States that might already be tipping into a recession because of it. Businesses near the Canadian border are particularly vulnerable to the rising costs and falling revenue caused by tariffs, and are delaying projects, holding off on hiring, raising prices, letting workers go, or wondering how they are going to keep feeding their cows as a result.
President Donald Trump kicked off his long-promised trade war by applying levies to steel, aluminum, and goods from China, Canada, and Mexico soon after he took office—insisting, incorrectly, that foreign companies would pay the tariffs and that American growth would surge. On Wednesday, he unleashed a global shock-and-awe campaign, announcing tariffs on every American trading partner.
Rogé Karma: Trump’s most inexplicable decision yet
The measures are meant to counter foreign countries’ tariffs and trade barriers, Trump said. But the numbers announced have nothing to do with such policies, where they even exist. The White House set a minimum 10 percent levy on imports from around the world, and imposed higher rates on imports from more than 60 countries, territories, and trading blocs. The administration appears to have derived those higher rates by dividing the value of the country’s bilateral trade deficit with the United States by the value of its exports to the United States.
The tariffs are capricious, haphazard, and weird. The Trump administration took into account only trade in goods, not services. It slapped tariffs on countries with long-standing free-trade agreements with Washington, including Australia, South Korea, Israel, Panama, Singapore, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic. It put tariffs on countries with a trade surplus with the United States. It implemented tariffs on remote, uninhabited islands. It implemented tariffs on a territory occupied predominantly by American and British soldiers.
The nonsensical policy will nevertheless have real effects. American consumer goods will get more expensive, with the average family paying an estimated $3,800 more a year for groceries, cars, clothing, furniture, and everything else if the tariff rates remain this high. Thousands of American firms, mostly small businesses, will go under. The United States risks collapsing into an astonishing voluntary recession, caused solely by a few powerful ideologues’ erroneous beliefs about trade.
If you want to understand where the American economy is heading, head to the border.
From Bellingham, Washington, to Calais, Maine, the United States has dozens of communities that are not so much linked to Canada’s economy as interwoven with it. Gas stations in these places rely on business from Canadian commuters. Ski resorts and water parks rely on Canadian tourists. Manufacturing firms rely on Canadian industrial inputs. Farms rely on Canadian feed. Hotels rely on Canadian business conferences.
Annie Lowrey: Don’t invite a recession in
Contrary to Trump’s pronouncements, tariffs are paid by domestic importers, not foreign exporters. Most companies pass the cost increase on to consumers. Others, like Adon Farms, cannot. “We’re taking that right on the chin,” Gilbert told me, explaining that he would have to pay tariffs on the fertilizer and farm equipment he buys too. “We’re not like other businesses,” he told me. “We’re very slow moving. I can’t pivot at all.”
Manufacturing firms and construction companies near the border face the same quandaries as the costs of steel, aluminum, lumber, and machine parts rise. These firms can’t quickly relocate their operations or find new suppliers either. “We surveyed 40 of our manufacturing companies in the region,” Garry Douglas, of New York’s North Country Chamber of Commerce, told me. “One sources raw materials from Canada and is looking at a $16 million cost increase to their U.S. operation. Another company is a paper mill that sources wood pulp from Canada. It’s the one source of the type of wood they need.”
At the same time as it is raising costs for border businesses, Trump’s quixotic trade war with Canada is depressing revenue for these businesses too. Dan Kelleher runs a tourism-promotion agency in the Adirondacks. “We had a terrific January in terms of overall visitation,” he told me. “Our numbers were up 24 percent over the five-year average. And then February came.” The president kept referring to Canada as the “51st state,” and hit the United States’ closest ally with a 25 percent tariff. Spending on lodging dropped 4 percent in February, Kelleher told me, with retailers reporting a 20 percent decline in sales.
“We have a lot of cross-border events, particularly hockey tournaments,” Kelleher said. “The teams are locked in to come play, but when they come, they’re not spending any money here.” He worried about the summer tourist season, and more so about the relationship between residents of the Adirondacks and their neighbors across the border. “Our Canadian friends—they’re upset, they’re hurt, they’re betrayed.”
Ron Kurnik is a dual citizen who lives in Canada and commutes across the border to run Superior Coffee Roasting, a café and coffee distributor in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. “One of our premier labels is an espresso blend, which I aptly termed the friendly neighbors,” he told me. “We spell it both ways on the label, neighbors and neighbours. It’s been the centerpiece of our business, and our relationship with the residents of this area.”
Rogé Karma: Trump’s tariffs are designed to backfire
Kurnik imports his coffee beans from Mexico and his coffee bags from China; both are more expensive, thanks to Trump’s levies. “With the added tax, we’re currently underwater on distribution,” he told me. With fewer Canadians crossing the Saint Marys River, sales at his café have dropped too. Superior Coffee Roasting has a “bit of a war chest,” in the form of profits from last year, Kurnik said. “That will probably, probably, get us through this year.” But he’s cut back on employee hours and laid one person off. “I’m trying to hold the line and not make too many big, consequential decisions,” he said. “If these things continue for six, eight months or beyond, it’s going to get bad.”
Residents of border towns see their shopping malls and greasy spoons half empty. They read stories in the local paper about rising construction costs and Canadians detained at border crossings. They notice the lack of hiring signs. They hear about the trade war on the evening news. As a result, many are reducing their own spending in expectation of a downturn: putting off home repairs, delaying the purchase of a new car, canceling vacations, eating in instead of ordering out.
“It is definitely having a rippling effect, and it’s been immediate,” says Michael Cashman, the supervisor of the town of Plattsburgh, New York, 20 minutes south of the border. “These may seem like small trade restrictions in Washington. But they’re devastating for our region.” He told me he was “deeply concerned” about sales-tax revenue dropping. Plattsburgh is preparing to pull back on public spending “until there is more clarity in the forecast.” Of course, the town cutting its budget would worsen the downturn.
What is happening in Plattsburgh and Sault Ste. Marie is happening in rural Nebraska, Kentucky’s bourbon country, and Las Vegas too—in every community that relies on foreign tourists, foreign imports, foreign exports, and cross-border traffic. Now, Trump’s new policies have put the whole country at risk. I surveyed my inbox the morning after the president’s Liberation Day announcement, reading market analysts’ notes: a “self-inflicted economic catastrophe,” a “large headwind,” a “transformed outlook,” “unconditionally bad,” an “extended period of volatility,” a “historic shift,” “madness.”
In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Kurnik was penciling out numbers on Wednesday—when retailers might raise prices for a bag of beans, how much to slow down production—while Trump was preparing for his speech in the Rose Garden. “We can’t operate a business flying by the seat of our pants,” he told me. “The administration can organize itself in that fashion. But how do you realistically expect me to follow suit?”
Shock of Trump tariffs has Wyoming businesses worried - WyoFile
Small businesses that import clothing, cameras and dinnerware face chaos, cost spikes.
wyofile.com
Shock of Trump tariffs has Wyoming businesses worried
Small businesses that import clothing, cameras and dinnerware face chaos, cost spikes.
by Rebecca Huntington and Dan Cepeda, Oil City News April 10, 2025
WyoFile’s local news initiative partnered with Oil City News to produce this story. For information on WyoFile collaborations or to share examples of how tariffs are impacting you, contact Rebecca Huntington at rebecca@wyofile.com.
With spring comes wedding season, when Cara Rank begins to rent table settings for Jackson Hole occasions with hundreds of guests. She plans ahead, placing orders six to nine months in advance. President Donald Trump’s now-paused tariffs would have slapped a $40,000 import tax on her roughly $200,000 shipment of hand-painted porcelain dinnerware, cutlery and glassware — all coming from Europe in May.
Preparing to absorb that cost on Wednesday morning and fearing a recession, Rank decided not to hire a new full-time position, at a salary of $70,000 with benefits, even though she had a finalist for the job.
“Do they want me to put people to work and pay them a living wage or do they want me to pay tariffs?” Rank told WyoFile on Wednesday. “Because that’s the decision in my mind.”
But then Trump soon reversed course, announcing a 90-day pause on all “reciprocal” tariffs that went into effect at midnight, except for China, which is now facing a triple-digit tariff. (Trump did maintain a 10% tariff rate on most countries.)
“I think the message that was sent to Donald Trump was very clear that the world will not accept these tariffs. What you saw yesterday was him reacting to that,” Rank said. “It’s a roller coaster, you don’t know how to plan for your business because he is so erratic.”
Small businesses from Jackson to Casper are being whipsawed by the Trump administration’s on-again, off-again tariffs on one side and a global trading system that they depend upon to run their businesses on the other. Small businesses accounted for 129,426, or 65.1%, of Wyoming employees, according to a 2024 report by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Rank owns two Jackson businesses, Objet West by XoWyo, which does event rentals, and XoWyo Paper and Press, which also relies on imported materials to print high-end wedding invitations and other custom stationery. She has 11 employees right now, and that number will jump to 25 during the height of weddings and other summer events.
Rank’s pessimism about the economy Wednesday turned to cautious optimism by Thursday. For now, facing 10% baseline tariffs Trump imposed April 5 on nearly all countries, she might still hire that position and grow her company, she said.
Wyoming businesses are at the mercy of a global trading system that has been decades in the making. One Casper storefront, and its mannequins, has stood watch through the many changes. Dawn Stevenson took ownership of the Mode O’ Day clothing store franchise in downtown Casper in 1974. That same year, Congress passed the Trade Act of 1974, giving the president more authority to negotiate trade deals.
At that time, Casper’s store was one of 840 franchises around the country. In a 2019 interview with Oil City News, Stevenson said the company eventually rebranded to Fashion Crossroads to stay relevant with changing trends, but went bankrupt in the 1990s. Stevenson bought the brand and kept operating the store.
Kyleen Stevenson-Braxton bought the store from her mother, and Fashion Crossroads remains a steady presence today, celebrating its 50th anniversary last year. But Stevenson-Braxton now runs a business woven together by global relationships. America’s textile manufacturing industry is almost nonexistent, so stocking a store with American-made goods affordably and consistently isn’t an option.
Instead, Stevenson-Braxton orders a lot of her premium items from Canadian producers, comparing their textile industry to what America’s once offered as far as quality. With her current stock pre-booked with vendors last year, prices are locked in through the fall season.
“I won’t see price changes until I go to market in August when I’m looking at the spring 2026 season,” she said.
Her store’s less expensive merchandise comes mainly from China, India and Mexico, and she expects to see those prices rising soon. Although the Trump administration paused higher tariffs for countries like India, the president doubled down on China.
“Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately,” Trump posted Wednesday on Truth Social. “At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable.” (The cumulative U.S. rate for Chinese imports is now 145%.)
Closer to home, Stevenson-Braxton is afraid she might have to drop vendors she’s used for decades if they’re forced to price themselves out of the market, particularly those based in Canada.
“It’s very scary to me honestly as a business owner,” she said. “Not just the tariffs, but I’m afraid that our economy’s going to get broken.”
All the turmoil and uncertainty follows what has already been a tough time for clothing retailers.
“Small businesses in general – and clothing in particular – we never really recovered from COVID because supply chains were affected and all of the elements that go into making clothing went up [in price]. So thread, buttons, zippers, cloth, all of these commodities went up in price.”
She said wholesale and operating costs such as rent and energy have risen as well. “You have a choice: You can either pass it on or you can try and eat it, but we can’t pass on all of these increases, and we can’t just eat all of it.”
There’s only so much her store can absorb before she has to pass costs on to her customers, she said, “and then the customer has a threshold of what they’re willing to spend because they’re dealing with all of the same things.”
Another Casper business, Wyoming Camera Outfitters, carries consumer and professional imaging gear from Canon, Nikon and Sony. They also have extensive offerings of aftermarket lens makers, such as Tamron.
It’s been chaotic behind the scenes, store manager Chris Luse said Tuesday before Trump reversed course on hefty tariffs for countries like Japan. Most of the equipment the store offers is manufactured in Japan and the Philippines, with some imports from China and other Asian countries.
“We’re getting emails left and right from all of the manufacturers,” he said. He said the first thing they’ll likely see is quick elimination of rebates and incentives.
Luse thinks the manufacturers will have something of a longer term outlook by the end of this week. “Most of the manufacturers should start having better game plans by then.”
The store has heard from numerous regular customers who are worried about price increases, and they’ve seen a bit of “panic buying” already.
Rank herself was contemplating rushing purchases on electronics for her business to get ahead of tariff-induced price hikes. While somewhat reassured by Trump’s pause, Rank is still adding up what the 10% baseline tariff will mean for her bottom line. Her business also typically buys packing materials, bags, foam, ink, tape and glue from China.
“What’s going to happen with China? Should I stock up?” Rank pondered Thursday. “Do I want to spend $10,000 on computers today rather than spacing it out over three to four months?”
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