Former President Trump's fixation with tariffs has become an obsession

Trump = FAIL!! A fool and his money are easily parted.

1 big thing: Trump's miracle cure

Former President Trump's fixation with tariffs has become an obsession — a policy panacea he claims will fuel a manufacturing boom, lower grocery prices, cut the deficit, stop wars, pay for tax breaks and even solve the child care crisis, Axios' Zachary Basu writes.

"Tariffs are the greatest thing ever invented," the former president declared at a town hall in Michigan last week.

Why it matters: The impact of Trump's plan to impose massive tariffs — with or without the support of Congress — has become the single biggest economic question of the 2024 election.

Vice President Harris sees the issue as fertile ground to close Trump's polling edge on the economy, and hammer him over proposals that mainstream economists say would reignite inflation.

Despite those warnings — and with nervous opposition from many fellow Republicans — Trump has doubled down on his populist vision for transforming the global economy.

In a speech yesterday in the port city of Savannah, Ga., Trump vowed to "relocate entire industries" to the U.S. by slashing taxes and regulations — and punishing companies that don't manufacture at home.

"You will see a mass exodus of manufacturing from China to Pennsylvania, from Korea to North Carolina, from Germany to right here in Georgia," Trump said, referring to a "New American Industrialism."

He pledged to impose a 100% tariff on "every single car coming across the Mexican border," a day after threatening John Deere with 200% tariffs if the agricultural giant moves production to Mexico.

Via X

Trump's well-documented devotion to tariffs has only grown deeper on the 2024 campaign trail, where he has cast the policy tool as an antidote to America's ailments.

War: "You go to war with another country that's friendly to us, or even not friendly to us, you're not going to do business in the United States and we're going to charge you 100% tariffs."

De-dollarization: "You leave the dollar, you're not doing business with the United States, because we're going to put 100% tariff on your goods."

Child care: "We're going to be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it's — relatively speaking — not very expensive, compared to the kind of numbers we'll be taking in."

🥊 Reality check: Trump's math doesn't add up, as Axios' Neil Irwin notes.

For one, Trump has falsely claimed for years that foreign countries pay tariffs. In reality, they're a tax on imported goods — meaning the money comes from a U.S. buyer who typically passes on those additional costs.

Trump rarely mentions the inevitable retaliatory tariffs against American exporters, which could damage major U.S. industries such as agriculture, energy and aerospace.

Trump's unprecedented proposals for blanket tariffs of 10% to 20% — and 60% tariffs on Chinese goods — would likely ignite a global trade war of epic proportions.

Axios

Me: The Chinese have their own internal income and money, internal to the World's Currencies, which they pay their Chinese workers, so the Chinese can make things a lot cheaper then anyone else can, because of their internal income, where, a worker might work for US$1 per day, but in China that internal income of US$1 represents $100 day, so that in China, they have a great income and expenditure capability, but not in comparison with any World Currencies.

In America, or any other country, labour costs are through the roof and with manufacturing costs on top of that, you simply can't compete with China, ever - so for Trump to say he would get industry back to America, is just tripe and financially impossible to achieve, which is why the big car makers and everyone else, moved their factories to China, where the profits are easily made, by reselling China made stuff - shipped from China to Western markets.

Trump = FAIL!! A fool and his money are easily parted.