this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2025
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Australia’s chances of escaping America’s global steel and aluminium tariffs appear all but extinguished, with the US president reconfirming his commitment to a comprehensive tariff regime he argues will be “the greatest thing we’ve ever done as a country”.

“We’re going to take in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, and we’re going to become so rich, you’re not going to know where to spend all that money,” Donald Trump told reporters on board Air Force One flying from Florida to Washington DC.

“We’re basically going to take back the money – a lot of the money that we’ve given away over many decades.”

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 23 hours ago

I can't wait for Trump to come up with the brilliant, never before thought of "just print more money."

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 day ago (1 children)

the US president reconfirming his commitment to a comprehensive tariff regime he argues will be “the greatest thing we’ve ever done as a country”.

I will never understand how Americans developed a taste for his constant hyperbolic bullshit.

Really? Tariffs? Rehashing pre-WW1 economics theories is the greatest thing America has ever done? Greater than abolishing slavery? Greater than the civil rights act? Greater than the moon landings? Greater than the invention of the transistor?

Trump is at a point where nobody bats an eye to this. Trying to hold him accountable for literally anything he says is futile, and half the country things that quality is a good thing and they enable it.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (3 children)

You have a section of America that wants more manufacturing to return to the US, and they see tarrifs as a way to make more production domestic. Those people haven't thought through that that will cause a lot of inflation and will heavily impact a lot of the manufacturing industry that the US still has.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Even if this plan succeeds, it's not like the countries you just tariffed are just going to allow American exports into their markets. It will shrink the whole economy AND cause inflation at the same time. Economics fear this state for a reason.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 14 hours ago

If they don't, Trump will do what he did to us here in Canada today and double the tariffs.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

What do you mean? America is so strong and powerful, these countries would never fight back.

/s

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

They forget they don't have the production plants or skilled labor for all this stuff they plan to build. Hell, they won't even have unskilled labor after they finish deporting everyone.

OK, so even if they do build it all and somehow get it working, nobody is going to buy any of it because they pissed the world off.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 12 hours ago

and its also increased prices of domestically produced products, due to higher wages, and other stuff that goes with it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

It isn't a well thought out plan.

[–] Furbag 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Those people are, sadly, too shortsighted to realize that they can't have their cake and eat it too. They want domestic manufacturing back, but they turn around and buy cheap Chinese shit from Walmart for a fraction of what it would cost if all manufacturing were here instead. Those two things are pretty much mutually exclusive.

If it came between Trump getting his way or big business getting their way, I'm betting on the big box retailers lobbying to stop Trump from doing anything that might dig into their profits. Rich folk aren't ideologues, they're just greedy assholes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 12 hours ago

even if some manufactering comes back, they still need to source materials from other countries.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As an American, I am just hoping Trump doesn't learn any additional economic terms. I keep expecting him to try to replace our federal income tax with a VAT.

Dear Australia, please sanction the shit out of us. We deserve it. Sorry we are so terrible.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 14 hours ago

VAT has tax in the name, and it goes on a receipt. It would be harder to tell people other countries are paying for it

[–] [email protected] 145 points 1 day ago (8 children)

“We’re going to take in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs"

...from ourselves.

Trump still doesn't understand what tariffs are. You'd think the moron would have Wikipedia'ed tariffs at some point after talking about them for so damn long.

[–] Xanthobilly 84 points 1 day ago (7 children)

My theory is he fully understands tariffs, but it’s a convenient way to siphon money off from Americans into a coffer he can steal that doesn’t require the IRS.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

.. and, he understands that every new tariff threat tanks the US stock market briefly, so he & his masters can sell first, 'buy the dip' a day or so later and make quick profits as the market recovers. Blatant manipulation.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 23 hours ago

... up until it stops being a "dip". I don't think these people care about having more. I think they want everyone else to have less.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

it is a grift, he knows his supporters are pretty stupid, that he has stated in the past. and he will probably be selling them something down the line.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

He’s never stopped. Bibles, those weird digital fantasy representations of himself, coins…

I love browsing estate auctions. Maybe that makes me a voyeur of sorts, either way, the amount of Trump coins that show up, consistently, since 2021 or so shows how much they’re buying.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What metal (if they even are metal) are they?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

I can’t say I pay that much attention after seeing his face on it, gold and or silver colored.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

So brass and chrome plated tin.

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[–] foggenbooty 5 points 1 day ago

Yup. And they're something he controlls, so when a company or country wants to get an exemption to his tarrifs so they can be more competitive they need to grovel.

It's an extortion racket, mixed with a poor tax, mixed with insider trading. Honestly as far as Trump grifts go, this one is pretty impressive. Just don't know how long he'll get away with it before his followers start to feel the pain.

[–] Arbiter 10 points 1 day ago

Bingo, he’s robbing from the poor to give to himself.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago

I noticed this phrasing as well. Our government is taking this money from the poorest half of its citizens, and Trump either doesn’t know that or is intentionally clouding the waters for those who still dont know what tariffs are.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

When he's saying "we" he just means himself and his lackeys

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

so, he's gonna put a 10-15% tariff on all imports? everything?

that would do just one thing, get every other country trading ONLY with each other---and NOT the u.s.

[–] wjrii 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I mean, people will still trade with the US, but no exporter is going to eat those tariffs out of the goodness of their heart or fear of the Orange Menace, so prices in the US will go up, likely a bit more than the amount of the tariffs as suddenly volumes are lower and administrative overhead is higher. Then the US economy slows in a way that will not rebound quickly, and investment in the US becomes much less attractive due to low customer buying power and the inability to move goods freely. All of this of course reduces the amount actually collected in tariffs. Reduced economic activity may ultimately have positive knock-on effects for many, but the direct economic impact worldwide, distributed, will definitely be negative.

I don't see a single way this is good for anyone, aside from those who can directly benefit from access to the levers of power and/or just want to watch the country burn (or at a minimum, smolder).

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[–] Sanctus 12 points 1 day ago

I fucking hate this. I fucking hate every day in this countrymen I FUCKEN HATE YOU TRUMP

[–] werefreeatlast 6 points 23 hours ago

I think the rest of the world has 5 billion total. All the rich assholes have 3 trillion total.

[–] dellish 44 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Wow I'm so so glad we fucked over France for a submarine deal. We're definitely going to get those submarines right? For no more than the promised amount? I'm feeling super confident that fucking over France was a clever thing to do.

[–] WhatAmLemmy 9 points 1 day ago

Honestly it sounds like both of them were shit deals, but that's what we get for living in plutocratic dictatorships masquerading as "democracy".

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

He was never going to give us an exemption and anyone believing he will is delusional, like Trump.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Finally! The American kangaroo farmers were really hurting because of unfair competition from Australia.

[–] naught101 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

No amount of protectionism will ever dent our dominance of the spider market.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don't speak for all Australians, but fuck Trump.

Maybe learning Mandarin wouldn't wouldn't so bad

[–] random_character_a 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If you have to chose between Mango Mussolini and Winnie the Pooh. Winnie starts to sound better all the time.

[–] WhatAmLemmy 19 points 1 day ago

At least the CCP values education, and is basically the most highly educated regime in all of history.

America is just a religiously mentally ill idiocracy that aggrandizes pure narcissism and individualism. It's a dead end.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago

Trump is very clearly there to line his own pockets with these tariffs. Do they really need to cut all these federal jobs with all that new federal income?

[–] eran_morad 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

ITT: people still don’t get that all of his actions are taken to please his owner.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

"Think how stupid your average ~~American~~ person is, and then realize half the population is dumber than that."

[–] Noite_Etion 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This is just a way to plunge the market value so he and his cronies can buy cheaper stocks.

[–] andrewta 1 points 20 hours ago

Plunge the market so they can do options on the way down. Then with the profits but the stocks at a cheaper price. Also do options on the way up.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Time to shut down Pine Gap

[–] dellish 11 points 1 day ago

Especially now that

  1. The US have told the Five Eyes to stop sharing intelligence with Ukraine - something I suspect the other Four Eyes may have a moral problem with, and

  2. The US is obviously compromised. Sharing intelligence with them is akin to just handing that intelligence straight to the "enemy", whoever that may be these days.

[–] DaddleDew 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

He's like someone rocking back and forth in the corner of a padded room repeating to himself that "the tariffs will save the economy" and "the tariffs will make us billions" over and over again while those tariffs, especially the way he tries to use them, are the very thing that is destroying the economy.

This man will cling to his delusions that the problems their economy is having right now are caused by his predecessors and keep doubling down in doing the very thing that is sinking the economy, completely incapable of admitting fault, until his entourage finally turns on him.

I'm giving him another month if the stocks continue tanking at the rate they currently are. The collapse has sped up today.

[–] Hobbes_Dent 14 points 1 day ago

“Common what?”

“Sir, it means the Commonwealth of…”

“Fucking get it.”

[–] krimson 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So the US recession is not coming fast enough then.

Civil war when? When will people take to the streets to get rid of this guy who is making their country even worse than it was before?

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