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Trump Announces 100% Tariff on Semiconductors, With Exemptions for Companies Building in the U.S.
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I am not arguing that junk is produced a purchased. And yes, labour moved abroad and millions of people have exited poverty as a result. But I do not believe that a zero deficit will help the people in need. It will go to the rich.
The US used to have a great manufacturing base of different companies but greed hit them and they moved out of the US to countries where labor costs were much much cheaper which meant manufacturing costs lowered, the product retail price increased, the company owners made millions of $$$ in profits. All the companies could have stayed in the US and still made a profit, is just that company owners wanted more profit so they left the US to achieve it.
I remember back in the 80's and early to mid 90's, if you wanted an electronic device it was made in America, if you wanted home appliances, it was made in America, if you wanted clothing it was made in America, if you wanted a car it was made in America, but now if you want any of that it says Made in China.
I remember back in the 80's and early to mid 90's, if you wanted an electronic device it was made in America, if you wanted home appliances, it was made in America, if you wanted clothing it was made in America, if you wanted a car it was made in America, but now if you want any of that it says Made in China.
So know Tim Cook is "bending the knee" to Trump by giving him a special "Plaque" designed "just for him" My Apple days are truly numbered now.
Not when the courts are as partisan as they are now.
But yea, anyone saw the gifts Tim Cook gave Trump?
RANT MODE ACTIVATED:
Ok im royally ***** confused here. Are we getting charged more or what because at this point i dont care if your building these thing on the moon with ommpa loompas who got laid off from willy wonka's chocolate factory. All i care about at the end of the day is how much more is this going to cost me. Look in a perfect world they would be built right here in the US Completly and be affordable and the people building them would be getting a livable wage for themselves and their familys, perfect health care, all the works.
But we dont live in a perfect world do we. Greedy people take most of the money and it trickles down to us lowely plebs buying the damn things and even less to the poor souls building the things.
I dont see how any of this betters the employee building this or the consumer buying the damn thing. All i know is for some reason (Greed) its going to cost more money out of our pockets and its going into someone elses and its pissing me off cause im not wealthy.
Im not donald trump. I dont have billions in the bank. I got to plan ahead and save and trade in what i got to get the new stuff and i only have so much i can spend.
Im all for building phones here in the US but not if the cost of said phones makes it impossable for people in the US to buy the damn things because they were built here in the US.
Im also not for slave conditions either. Im not cool with some 5 year old chinese kid working 20 hours a day building the damn thing and getting paid 2 bucks an hour and being housed in a sweat shop.
There has to be some level of balance between both extremes and i dont have a solution that puts more money in rich peoples pockets and still makes everyone else happy in the process. i dont think such a solution exists cause someone somewhere wants more money then they deserve.
Im dreading next month when the damn phones are announced cause i have no reasonable clue how much they are going to cost with this tariff on that tariff and it changes every 5 minuets with trump in office. i thought prices went up bad with Biden in office, but this is way way worse, and im totally convinced this is just him minipulating the market to enrich himself BECAUSE HES THE TYPE OF GUY WHO WOULD DO THAT IF HE COULD NO PROBLEM.
I just wana be able to trade in my current iphone for the new one at a reasonable price without having to understand the damn global market rates and being a expert on the Economy and not feel like i just went on a speed dating run in a prison shower afterwards if you know what i mean and i think you do! (thats the polites way i can say what i mean without actually saying it )
Ok im royally ***** confused here. Are we getting charged more or what because at this point i dont care if your building these thing on the moon with ommpa loompas who got laid off from willy wonka's chocolate factory. All i care about at the end of the day is how much more is this going to cost me. Look in a perfect world they would be built right here in the US Completly and be affordable and the people building them would be getting a livable wage for themselves and their familys, perfect health care, all the works.
But we dont live in a perfect world do we. Greedy people take most of the money and it trickles down to us lowely plebs buying the damn things and even less to the poor souls building the things.
I dont see how any of this betters the employee building this or the consumer buying the damn thing. All i know is for some reason (Greed) its going to cost more money out of our pockets and its going into someone elses and its pissing me off cause im not wealthy.
Im not donald trump. I dont have billions in the bank. I got to plan ahead and save and trade in what i got to get the new stuff and i only have so much i can spend.
Im all for building phones here in the US but not if the cost of said phones makes it impossable for people in the US to buy the damn things because they were built here in the US.
Im also not for slave conditions either. Im not cool with some 5 year old chinese kid working 20 hours a day building the damn thing and getting paid 2 bucks an hour and being housed in a sweat shop.
There has to be some level of balance between both extremes and i dont have a solution that puts more money in rich peoples pockets and still makes everyone else happy in the process. i dont think such a solution exists cause someone somewhere wants more money then they deserve.
Im dreading next month when the damn phones are announced cause i have no reasonable clue how much they are going to cost with this tariff on that tariff and it changes every 5 minuets with trump in office. i thought prices went up bad with Biden in office, but this is way way worse, and im totally convinced this is just him minipulating the market to enrich himself BECAUSE HES THE TYPE OF GUY WHO WOULD DO THAT IF HE COULD NO PROBLEM.
I just wana be able to trade in my current iphone for the new one at a reasonable price without having to understand the damn global market rates and being a expert on the Economy and not feel like i just went on a speed dating run in a prison shower afterwards if you know what i mean and i think you do! (thats the polites way i can say what i mean without actually saying it )
I believe it applies to the computers, phones, and other devices being imported already built with those semiconductors inside, which I expect is how the vast majority of semiconductors arrive to the USA. I guess it would also mean that boxed CPUs should jump in price, which should annoy gamers that build/upgrade their systems themselves (and video cards should jump in price, too, as the GPU is a large chunk of the price... I don’t think I’ve bought a video card that was made in the USA in this century.)
Yep but I was thinking in absolute terms even if they haven't done so yet, I can only assume that the oppostiton has opened a case against the incumbent administration.
Stupid question but is it plain, obvious and unequivocal that they shouldn't be doing it or is there room for plausible deniability?
I saw the trinket and thought it was crap. I suppose though that it follows Apple design language in that it is plain and simple.
Other than computers, most of the electronics I remember seeing in the 80s and 90s were made in Japan and already moving towards cheaper manufacturing countries, including China.
But I really don’t know where you are getting your Chinese-made American car numbers from, because AFAIK I haven’t ever even seen a Chinese car in person, and the numbers I can find say only about a third of a percent of cars sold in the US are made in China (around 100,000 in 2023, about half that in 2024).
Around half the vehicles sold in the USA are actually assembled in the USA, though some of the parts may come from outside the country. It isn’t remotely difficult to find an American made vehicle if you actually want one.
RANT REPLY ;-):
I hear you about looking at your wallet, but I’d argue that where something is made does matter—even if it feels distant and irrelevant when you’re just trying to buy a phone.
In theory (at least):
If a company manufactures in the U.S., it pays U.S. workers, who then spend that income back into the U.S. economy—buying other stuff, paying taxes, supporting services. That circular flow helps everyone.
But if the company outsources production to the cheapest possible country (with low wages and few protections), then that money leaves the country. Sure, we get cheaper products—but fewer local jobs, stagnant wages, and growing inequality. That’s how the middle class gets hollowed out. The company wins, the consumer maybe saves $50, but the broader economy loses.
The real problem is: companies chase low costs abroad, but they still want U.S. consumers to have enough money to buy their products. You can’t have both—eventually, if you stop paying people decent wages at home, they can’t afford the things you sell, even if they’re made cheaply. At the same time corporations shape policy to maintain the illusion of prosperity, even while undermining the foundations of a healthy economy.
Ideally, you want a balance: produce locally when possible (especially high-value stuff), sell abroad to bring in money, and trade fairly for things you can’t make yourself. But right now, we’ve gone too far in the direction of outsourcing everything, and it shows.
That said, I completely agree with your bigger point: tariffs alone won’t fix this. They’re often just used to manipulate markets or gain political points, and we—the consumers—end up paying the price either way. If the goal were fair wages or environmental standards, that’d be one thing. But this stuff feels like economic whiplash, not long-term strategy. Especially, as I said before, bringing manufacturing back into the US will, most likely, not have the benefit of mass employment as there will be lots of automition. The second problem is, how will other coutries reposnd in the long run? wit the rest of the world increasing their consumerism there will be more attractive markets, hurting US exports.
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The administration is being sued, by multiple states and multiple businesses. It's taking a while to go through the courts, but they are still active.
5 court cases that could derail Trump tariffs
Several suits claim the president has overstepped his authority, with a critical proceeding for one case beginning July 31 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
You guys forgot the part where Tim Apple rimmed the Orange Dictator in public in the Oval Office and literally gave him a gold bar.
Exactly. At this point everyone in the world knows Trump likes gold so they give him some tacky “gift” covered in it for exemptions due to his poor policy’s. None of these US based companies will be able to bring 100% manufacturing to the US, country is not built for it so they’ll just find ways to circumvent (e.g. gold or empty promises to Trump) until a new
There is a big difference to 'Made in America' to that of being 'Assembled in America' because a vast majority of parts that are required to build something is actually made abroad. 100% of a car used to be made in the US, now I bet it is less than 20% with many of the cars made in the US.
This website shows the percentage of cars made in the US https://www.carscoops.com/2025/03/how-much-of-your-car-is-really-made-in-the-usa/
Only 4 model of cars currently have 70% or more of it's car made in the US made by Hyundai, Honda (x2) and Tesla.
Of all the cars sold in the US, 55% of them are made in the US and none of them are 100% made in the US, the highest being 80% (Kia EV6). The US once had a very strong thriving car industry which has been allowed to virtually disappear in favor of foreign made cars and car parts.
I therefore see nothing wrong in a government wanting to bring the good times back to the US, a thriving manufacturing industry where jobs are plenty and long term.
Ok cool. I suspect though that these cases will take far too long before the admin can be stopped.The administration is being sued, by multiple states and multiple businesses. It's taking a while to go through the courts, but they are still active.
5 court cases that could derail Trump tariffs
Several suits claim the president has overstepped his authority, with a critical proceeding for one case beginning July 31 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.www.supplychaindive.com
Wait until countries starting to introduce export tax targeting the US, payable by whoever exporting stuff to US, which then got charged to whoever importing the stuff. Same $10 goods gonna be taxed twice before entering the US market. It is going to be amazing for Donald Trump and his “America First” I am sure.
Let’s not even mention US lands can’t possibly grow everything Americans need and have all the required resources to be self-efficient on literally everything and can forgo trade with literally everyone else.
Thing is, it is good and dandy but car manufacturing becomes more high-tech than before these days. And we need qualified people to operate and maintain those high-tech stuff to keep pumping out better cars. Unless Donald Trump wants to expand US manufacturing “sweat-shop” style, hiring lots of workers to do lots of manual work, such as wielding, screwing, soldering and more, I don’t know how that is going to happen.
Are you prepared to pay the same money for these things as in the 80's and 90's, possibly with lower specs than today's products? Because decoupling the US economy in this way would lead to exactly this.
“Introduce”? Don’t these already exist?
That’s why there are specified “Duty Free” locations when traveling.
On a larger scale, it seems that these exist in “resource rich” countries. I don’t have time to search further at the moment. Maybe someone else knows.
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So, a company only has say I’ll commit x amt of dollars to be exempt from the new tariffs then delay implementing anything for 3 years until new administration takes over. I imagine you could waste 1-2 yrs just looking for a suitable site within the US.
All the while most companies will probably implement price increases regardless if they are impacted or not.
All the while most companies will probably implement price increases regardless if they are impacted or not.
Doesn’t that feel like slavery? Would you work for two bucks an hour? Would you live in a compound that’s like a jail and you’re treated like a slave where your meager salary barely pays your living costs at the demanded facility? Why do you think they all have nets at the bottom of their compounds, why do you think that is? Because the workers lives are so terrible they want to jump. Apple, its supply chain is evil as it only focuses on shareholders profits not human rights or anything else. I would pay more for any product if it’s made with human workforce that is compensated and treated well. In the USA, people have rights - not many but some - they can leave the job and there’s a wage that offers something that’s more than like living in a jail cell as a slave working hard labor 14 hours per day to send a few hundred bucks to their families each month. There are many factors, but that one alone is enough that I looked elsewhere over 25 years ago as I didn’t want to fund China’s rise. It’s sad as the politicians didn’t stop it as they were paid off. The whole system is corrupt and so many people don’t know the facts of where the money goes that they pay from their Apple products. First to shareholders and executives. Next to marketing and raw components, and the last people on the list are Apple employees and even worse contractors. It’s a worthless terrible system.
He’s gonna use it for himself like all the other grifts he’s doing?
I can’t believe people are this stupid.
I dunno if they actually exist but my point is countries should double tax US products into oblivion so they can’t possibly sell outside of US, hurting US companies (especially like Apple) and businesses in the process, in retaliation to Trump punishing products from other countries.