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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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[-] ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org 133 points 2 weeks ago

“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@lemmy.world 76 points 2 weeks ago

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.

[-] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 48 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

.. 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.

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[-] Ledericas@lemm.ee 16 points 2 weeks ago

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.

[-] zephorah@lemm.ee 11 points 2 weeks ago

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.

[-] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago

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

[-] Upgrayedd1776@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

that sounds kinda cool actually, i just got into thrift shopping. Any good resources for getting started with estate auctions, and do you ever find anything worth the effort? Im a minimalist and just sort of furnishing my place or trading up

[-] Arbiter@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

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

[-] foggenbooty@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks 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.

[-] chellewalker@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago

I don't think he even understands how taxes work in all honesty.

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[-] courageousstep@lemm.ee 19 points 2 weeks 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.

[-] CobraChicken3000@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 weeks ago

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

[-] Embargo@lemm.ee 2 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, I have been reading this over and over. This is what happens when a person is imprisoned in an isolated upper class society. He is sick and has no idea that the majority of his own people are already suffering. People are dying because of this horrible man and it won't stop with those who are deemed others or people across the borders and ocean he absolutely gives zero fucks about. Before too long, it'll be Americans who will die horribly and the country will reap repercussions for decades to come. I didn't think I'd live to see America become the enemy, but here we are.

[-] Ledericas@lemm.ee 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

trump and his father did bully one of his brothers to alcoholism for being a pilot. he only knows how to bully people. i think that is one of the reasons why trump doesn't touch liquor too.

[-] adarza@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 weeks ago

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@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks 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).

[-] Geobloke@lemm.ee 4 points 2 weeks ago

I think he does, he just expects that in 4 years time the US will be booming and the bitter pill at their inception will have passed

He probably should look at the effect of China's tariffs and trade disputes on Australia.

[-] Ledericas@lemm.ee 3 points 2 weeks ago

he only look what he did the first time with soybeans and china. China found a new source of soybeans elsewhere, american soybean farmers never recovered.

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[-] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I'm sure he does. But his constituency still doesn't.

Let's again quote this from some 2016 article that stuck in my head:

They voted for the elephant in the china shop. Little did they realize that they were the china.

And. They. Still. Don't. Realize.

My only hope is that right now, his supporters are dwindling. How much though and will it still have an effect come next election and won't it be too late anyhow...

[-] dellish@lemmy.world 42 points 2 weeks ago

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@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks 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".

[-] ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org 40 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

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

[-] naught101@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

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

[-] PointyReality@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

But if another country wanted to then I am all for it. Yours Truly the Australian Arachnophobiac.

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[-] nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca 31 points 2 weeks ago

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.

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 10 points 2 weeks ago

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.

[-] nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 weeks ago

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.

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[-] skozzii@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

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.

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 3 points 2 weeks ago

It isn't a well thought out plan.

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[-] Psiczar@aussie.zone 30 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

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

[-] Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone 23 points 2 weeks ago

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

Maybe learning Mandarin wouldn't wouldn't so bad

[-] random_character_a@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

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

[-] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 18 points 2 weeks 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.

[-] kingie_d@feddit.uk 18 points 2 weeks ago

Time to shut down Pine Gap

[-] dellish@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks 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.

[-] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 18 points 2 weeks ago

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.

[-] zephorah@lemm.ee 17 points 2 weeks 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?

[-] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 16 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks 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.

[-] Noite_Etion@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago

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

[-] nicky7@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 weeks ago

And buy out bankrupt companies and liquidated assets.

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[-] Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

“Common what?”

“Sir, it means the Commonwealth of…”

“Fucking get it.”

[-] Etterra@discuss.online 13 points 2 weeks ago

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

[-] Sanctus@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago

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

[-] eran_morad@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago

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

[-] GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 weeks ago

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

[-] krimson@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

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?

[-] Ledericas@lemm.ee 4 points 2 weeks ago

americans are still to content and complacent and coddled to even go through a civil war right now.

[-] ms_lane@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

How is he going to get "Hundreds of Billions"?

Putting aside that's not how tariffs work- we only export around $13billion per year to USA. Even a 25% tariff would require somewhere around 30 years for that US consumer paid money to even hit $100m, but he said Hundreds (plural)

Is this some 42D Chess (no) that Australia is going to see a 5x or more uptick in exports to USA?

[-] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

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

[-] ms_lane@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

Go on Trump... DO IT.

The moment you do, AUSFTA is torn to pieces, a very one sided agreement but you seem to want to throw away all your benefits, so go ahead!

We'd all love you to do it Donnie!

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this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2025
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