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Comment by tootie

8 days ago

I have never caught even the slightest whiff of Trump knowing what he's doing on any topic. I'm genuinely not trying to be glib either, this is a sincere observation. When has he publicly or privately intimated that he understands how tariffs or trade work? Or energy or immigration or infrastructure or technology? His public persona gives facile and misleading explanations that are ostensibly just politicking, but every tidbit of leaked insider accounts or hot mics or unguarded moments don't show anything more than the same persona.

> When has he publicly or privately intimated that he understands how tariffs or trade work?

He has a Bachelor's Degree in Economics.

This tariff plan isn't Trumps. He co-opted Robert Lighthizer last time round, He was a trade negotiator, who believes strongly in protectionism.

  • It is Howard Lutnick's plan who is the Secretary of Commerce.

    Has been widely reported that there was conflict amongst the inner circle about the extent of the tariffs and that it was Lutnick pushing for the most extreme version which is what we ended up with.

    • Thanks for the correction. I had trouble remembering the name and when I went searching Lighthizer came up first.

    • Is there a cite for that? I believe it just haven't seen it. Very worrying because Lutnick was Musk's guy and that puts him at least adjacent to Thiel and his cult of monarchy.