Wdym? It's entirely merit-based, with the 'merit' being $1 million dollar totally-not-a-bribe dinner with the president: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intell...

That's definitely how it looks like

You are right.

Do you think all the tech CEO’s attended his inauguration for nothing?

I never imagined I would see such public corruption in any western country. I am saying this as someone who supported some the current administrations agenda

The inauguration donations are pretty common across all parties, I think the Trump coin launching the day prior was the most corrupt.

The whole idea of an inauguration donation is gross. No president should accept, and no one should offer.

> The inauguration donations are pretty common across all parties

Which is still corruption.

Jared Trump’s business getting two billion dollar investment from Saudi Arabia and the Secret Service paying Trump millions for various services like staying at his hotels happened during his first term.

It’s total bullshit. Part of my business involves direct import and that’s now impacted by tariffs. The cherry on top is that what I import is not and cannot be produced in the U.S. I source a number of other products from suppliers in the U.S. and literally every single one of them is impacted by tariffs somehow, whether it’s ingredients, packaging, etc. that comes from somewhere else. Some of my materials originate in the Dominican Republic, which is now subject to a 10% tariff, although it’s more common for others in my industry to source those same materials from China. Now that China is prohibitively expensive, they will be quickly pivoting to other suppliers, which will further drive up prices. Supply chains are in chaos right now.

It burns me up that massive companies like Apple and Nvidia get a free pass while everyone else is subject to the most brain dead economic policy anyone alive today has ever lived through.

The whole thing strikes me as a bunch of nepobaby/fake academic/banker bro advisors who have no idea how the physical world works. As much as I think Musk is a bad actor at this point, talking to him about supply chains would have highlighted how insane this whole plan was from day 1.

My dad is a retired EE who dealt with the 90s offshoring wave and described the process of spinning up offshore production with a new supplier/factor/product as a 1-2 year process.

Now imagine every producer with China exposure trying to do this at the same time dealing with the same limited ex-China options? Nothing was happening in the 90 day pause, let alone before the 2026 midterms or before the end of his reign in 2028.

Complete chaos for American companies who are left with no good options other than try to wait it out, and pass on excess cost to consumers in interim.

It’s pure stupidity and most people don’t even realize it. Last night I met a couple at a country club where I was a guest - one of those $100k/yr places - and they asked me if my trade partners are charging me more with the tariffs. I told them the U.S. government is charging me more with the tariffs and my trade partners are charging me more because the value of the dollar is down. This was the first time anyone told them it’s the importer who pays the tariff and that it will be passed to the customer in multiples to maintain the same profit margin. Man, to be wealthy enough to be a member at a place like that and to be able to live in ignorant bliss… What a life.

This is why I don't know if he will/would actually hold fast through the turbulence of actually implementing anything he's threatened.

Once we eat through inventories and stuff that left the ports & currently on the water, prices will go up.

The country went insane when inflation crossed 5%, are we really going to do it again.. when the reason for it will be so singularly obvious?

Whilst the reason may be singularly obvious to those who consume various forms and sources of media, there's likely enough people that only consume re-published whitehouse press releases and the trump administration probably already has an alternative explanation that they'll use for these increased prices.

And their target market will eat it up and ask for seconds.

Like a doomsday cult, with each failed prediction they will just keep pushing back the ostensible payoff. So far, we've seen "I will end inflation on day one" -> "this is still Biden's inflation" -> "there will be a little bit of pain" -> "the system has been broken for decades and it will take years to fix".

> The country went insane when inflation crossed 5%

This is actually one of the few reasons I'm hopeful for the next election (assuming we still get one) - last time, regardless of the root cause, the country blamed those in power right then.

I have seen country clubs only in movies. Do those places really exist and are they as stereotypical as one might expect?

They really exist. There are lots. I went to one in Dallas as a guest once. Sure as hell not my scene.

Country clubs aren't terribly different than a Manhattan co-op..

It’s not like Caddyshack. At least not this one. There’s golf, tennis, pools, a restaurant, bars, etc. It’s the kind of place where you will see PGA Tour guys hanging around and a few other high profile people. A lot of people are driving cars that cost more than my house. Everyone is pretty chill, but it’s top 1% kind of people in their natural habitat. It’s like a little bubble detached from reality.

We have an entire generation of mid-level management types who have never experienced any form of adversity or even challenge, and have mistaken their privilege for talent, and they are every single bit as prone to falling into filter bubbles as the rest of us, but when you are that privileged, nobody around you will ever explain "no, uh, you are very wrong".

The dirty secret that nobody talks about is that the vast majority of our rich people are literally in filter bubbles of their own making and are disconnected entirely from reality. Like really bad ones too, not anything interesting, just generic Fox News based ones.

I really do sympathize with you, given how much small businesses are often reliant on imports and often don't have enough money in reserve to wait out this chaos. There are going to be a LOT of small businesses going bankrupt over the next few months, while these big companies have much deeper pockets and can weather this storm.

"Star-bellied sneetches" maybe, but it's not about "biggest piles of capital" as much as about importing things with the following codes:

8471 8473.30 8486 8517.13.00 8517.62.00 8523.51.00 8524 8528.52.00 8541.10.00 8541.21.00 8541.29.00 8541.30.00 8541.49.10 8541.49.70 8541.49.80 8541.49.95 8541.51.00 8541.59.00 8541.90.00 8542

It took me a minute to figure out what you were referring to:

| Code | Description |

|--------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 8471 | Automatic data processing machines (e.g., computers, servers, laptops) |

| 8473.30 | Parts/accessories for machines of 8471 (e.g., computer parts) |

| 8486 | Machines for manufacturing semiconductors or ICs |

| 8517.13.00 | Smartphones |

| 8517.62.00 | Data transmission machines (e.g., routers, modems) |

| 8523.51.00 | Solid-state storage (e.g., USB drives, flash memory) |

| 8524 | Recorded media (e.g., tapes, disks — mostly obsolete) |

| 8528.52.00 | LCD/LED monitors for computers |

| 8541.10.00 | Diodes (not including LEDs) |

| 8541.21.00 | Transistors (<1 W dissipation) |

| 8541.29.00 | Other transistors |

| 8541.30.00 | Thyristors, diacs, triacs |

| 8541.49.10 | Gallium arsenide LEDs |

| 8541.49.70 | Other LEDs (not GaAs) |

| 8541.49.80 | Other photosensitive semiconductors |

| 8541.49.95 | Other semiconductors not elsewhere specified |

| 8541.51.00 | Unassembled photovoltaic cells |

| 8541.59.00 | Other photovoltaic cells/modules |

| 8541.90.00 | Parts for items in 8541 |

| 8542 | Electronic integrated circuits (e.g., microprocessors, memory chips) |

I copied the codes from the actual government communication: https://content.govdelivery.com/bulletins/gd/USDHSCBP-3db9e5...

As other commenter says, it’s interesting that there are also exceptions within the exceptions.

America has finally become the banana republic it has accused others of being.

That's a funny way of looking at it because the banana republics weren't called that because they were "bananas" or something. They were called that to identify which of those countries had had state and megacorp interference and government toplings, by mostly the United Fruit Company - an American company.

Whatever the banana republics were they were turned into that by the US's doing, so it's funny that now the term comes back home.

It bears some resemblance to the Imperial Boomerang.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_boomerang

People commenting here about Trump corruption are correct, but it's also not new. This is regression to the mean. America has historically been a highly corrupt nation with extreme wealth inequality that occasionally has shocks (e.g. Abolitionism, the Progressive movement, WWII) that allow liberals to take over and purge the system of corruption. If anything, we've had to deal with and defeat (or at least, outlive) smarter and more well-connected fascists than Trump.

I agree and my rationale of it is that it's related to the US dedication to capitalism and thus aversion to any form of socialism (even small pockets that, in my opinion, are evidently positive for society as a whole) as some kind of governmental totalitarianism.

This has been the best TIL moment for me on HN.

Thanks, man, I am now in the rabbit hole of reading up.

In that same context, did you read the article about how diplomats were "convincing" the Mexican government to not use open source over Microsoft?

It sure sounds like the same strategy.

[1] https://lwn.net/Articles/1013776/

That’s how oligarchies work.

Eastern Europe and large part of Asia to US citizens: "First time?"

We are returning champs of the Oligarchy World Tour at this point.

not just a bit, this is so unfair and smells of corruption, only the richest companies getting exemptions, give me a break. this is what organized crime looks like.

if it is not, what is your interpretation of it then?

It is all companies in the categories of phones, computers, and chips.

so what difference does that make, my interpretation still holds :)

False, you said:

> only the richest companies getting exemptions

…when the reality is that certain classes of goods were exempted. You reiterated the clickbaity headline.

Products like the Librem phone have exceptions. Is Purism one of the richest companies?

It applies to huawei as much as Apple.

Companies aren’t getting exemptions. The product categories are. The headline is misleading. And while you might already be aware of that, most the people responding to you clearly aren’t.

[delayed]

It’s not irrelevant at all when the headline implies that companies were singled out by name. Details matter.

Because they can’t do it, and will be sued, to my understanding. I think you’re trying to make the admins look good.

The result is still that certain companies are getting exemptions for their products while others aren't. And there is no real rhyme or reason behind these decisions

K. We aren’t in disagreement there. Not sure if you’re giving pushback on something I said.

I'm reaching here but....

Apple has already "committed" to investing in US manufacturing. Also, many companies have committed to AI investments on US soil which would be heavily NVIDIA dependent. Could be a justification for the exemption.

This is probably the most corrupt, pay to play government in the history of the US. Merit has no place here.

Trump is pro business in the same way Putin is. It's not good to be in the Russian oil business, unless you are Putin's chosen friend.