Larger discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43634806

Geopolitical reality TV at its finest.

Kids these days call it "Absolute Cinema".

More discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43634806

let's hope this time someone told him that Taiwan is not part of China..

The President of the US believing it wasn't was never sufficient to make it independent, but what is the opposing force if the President of the US believes it is part of China?

Whether he is an actual idiot or a selfish asshat (if those are even independent properties), China's calculus is influenced by the benefit of the US treating Taiwan as part of it.

Again, this is Navarro's doing. All other tariffs are negotiable (behind close doors and hand-kissing Trump), except China's. Tariffing only China doesn’t work because people bypass the tariffs through an intermediary country otherwise. At least that's what he thinks.

If the U.S. suspends tariffs on other countries, China can engage in re-export trade, which would effectively equate to suspending tariffs on China. It's only a matter of time before this loophole is exposed.Trump has backed down.

That doesn't matter. The loophole is known, possibly even desirable, the point is to save face.

This was also possible with the existing 10% baseline.

It'd probably be a good way to get the middleman country punished, if attempted in any significant volume.

Apparently re-export of Chinese goods accounts for 10-15% of Vietnamese exports to the US. Let's see if that surges or if Vietnamese authorities are cautious (re-export was one of the justifications to "punish" Vietnam with high tariffs).

So the 90-day tariff pause "fake news" wasn't fake after all...?

Dump and pump... Trump friends must be making a fortune

I truly wondered last Tuesday if he was only getting more "serious" because the market had stopped responding to his announce-a-planned-tariff-one-day-then-reverse-it-the-next strategy, so it was no longer useful, and he'd need to string them along far longer to make it work at least one more time.

He's President. There's plenty of juice to squeeze out of the markets still. He could threaten to drop a nuke on Australia, for example.

All of this ONLY after

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-sec-see-exodus-hundreds-...

Eyes wide shut as they loot.

Some potential insider antics:

https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1910167321878163815

Oh man we get to look forward to these shenanigans for a long time to come, huh?

The uncertainty is the real problem. Not the tariffs. Tariffs this week. None next week.

Not to mention the cronyism - we all can’t fly to Mar A Lago to get exceptions for our businesses in exchange for favors.

The tariffs are a really huge problem. That said, you're right that the uncertainty is an even larger problem. I don't think that the administration could do a better job of harming the US, US interests, and the world if it tried.

The tariffs are as big a problem as the uncertainty. Not sure why you would think the tariffs are not.

What a shame. And I was just about to start building my cutting edge 0.5 nm chip factory in Omaha tomorrow. I guess I can wait another 90 days ...

/s