Trump Suggests Tariffs Could Be Placed on iPhones and Laptops Imported From China

[imageWIS]

Exactly right. This guy knows nothing about (and is unwilling to be educated about) international trade and the economy. He'll just utter whatever mindless drivel enters his head during an interview and expect to be taken seriously, while real economists can only shake their heads or laugh out loud. In the meantime, it is not surprising that his voters will continue to buy into this rubbish, because I guess it is quite difficult to publicly embarrass yourself to admit that you've been conned. Bigly.

If he keeps on running the country like he ran his casinos, the US Gov will end up with the Yuuuugest bankruptcy in the history of the world.
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Econ 101: a tariff on products from another country is not a penalty imposed on that country. It’s a penalty imposed on our own citizens who buy goods from that country.

Most mainstream economists, whether liberal or conservative, agree that tariffs do more harm than good to the country imposing the tariffs, which is supported by a lot of empirical evidence.

Trump of course is not using tariffs as an economic policy. He is using the *threat* of tariffs as a strategy to get the other countries to give the US more favorable terms.

But it’s an empty threat. Because if the other countries don’t give him what he wants, he has an incentive to back down and cancel the tariffs because they hurt his own country. And if he cancels what he threatened to do, his subsequent threats will not be credible.

Trump knows that backing down will make him look weak. So he doesn’t back down, and the country pays the price.

Whether you are conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat, I don’t question your intelligence or your patriotism. There have been Republican and Democratic Presidents who listened carefully to experts, even experts who didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear, and then made a careful, rational policy decision they believed was in the country’s best interest.

Trump is not one of them. His tariff threats are reckless and ill-advised. US consumers will pay more for imports and some US workers will lose their jobs. There are a lot of Republican politicians and Democratic politicians who would do a much better job with economic policy. I hope one of them becomes President soon.

As if most people are swayed by empirical evidence... instead they are swayed by their uneducated and willfully ignorant opinions based on 'feelings'; this goes for both sides of the aisle, however, empirically it occurs more on the right than it does on the left.
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I don't think anyone else really is "getting behind" these tariffs.
The republicans in congress are all running scared, afraid of being "tweet stormed" and insulted by President T.
So instead they have decided to let the country slide into the gutter...

Which is tantamount to at a minimum, dereliction of their oath of office.

 

[smorrissey]

Clinton also ended his Presidency with a record surplus.
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Yes, thinner too!

Wee!!! Good luck selling them...

https://www.google.com/search?ei=1p...j0i67j0i20i263j0i131j0i131i20i263.2qI_X-ULY3Q

touché....

 

[citysnaps]

Yeah... Making America Great Again. How’s all that working out for those that voted for him?

 

[jonnyb098]

I think Apple already went ahead and priced everything according to the tariffs. Every product has gone up by 20-30 percent this fall. And guess what? people are still buying the products.

 

[B4U]

Trump's steel tariffs is why GM just laid off everyone.

Congratulations Trump voters, you played yourself.

The US economy is a globalist one that seeks open borders and free trade. The quicker you understand that, the better off you will be in this country.

Apple is doing exactly that by designing products by brilliant engineers in Silicon Valley, while having them built by cheaper, lower educated people in China.

If a person in China can build something for cheaper than in America, LET THEM - that is economic efficiency. An efficient economy will always win over an corrupt, inefficient one. Americans should only do jobs that only Americans can do, like high-end services jobs. Our economy is based on massive higher-education - the best in the world. No other country has a university system like ours, and we should take advantage of that.

We don't want Americans to perform manual labor that oxen can do. We only want engineers and scientists and artist - people that can create value with their minds.

New York, Silicon Valley and Hollywood are good examples of the kind of economy the US should be going forward.

A good example of complete economic failure is Russia - their economy is entirely based on selling things they find on the ground. When was the last time anyone bought something designed/made in Russia?

The sad part is, the coward (draft dodger) won in Michigan (however small margin it is).

 

[Williesleg]

I don't understand, some people complain that everybody should pay their fair share of taxes.
So this is their chance.
Buy some Apple stuff and make a donation to the US Treasury. For social programs.
And someday Timmy Cook can figure out a way to build his overpriced stuff in the United States.
Until then enjoy and feel good about helping out the less fortunate.

 

[thekev]

charge the robots a fee, that will teach them..

wasn't there a futurama episode on this? @thekev

I'm not sure which one you're referring to specifically. There was one involving a 3 cent titanium tax and a presidential election. That was before Robot Nixon took over. There was one involving a delivery to a robot planet with a lug nut shortage. There was one where Bender sold his body due to inflated titanium prices (this is the one where Nixon's head in a jar took over after donning a robot body).

I don't think there was one involving a specific tax on robots.

 

[redneckitengineer]

If he keeps on running the country like he ran his casinos, the US Gov will end up with the Yuuuugest bankruptcy in the history of the world.

Round 3, keep em coming. I love fact checking.

Here, from Snopes, a proven and trusted resource for factual evidence, has the following to say about Trump actually reducing the US Debt.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/national-debt-trump/

But of course that was temporary and it has since increased.

So let’s dive into the previous administrations as a reference to where we are today. As the reference below proves the debt ceiling on average increased at $1-1.5 trillion annually. So actually Trump is not fixing the problem, but he’s also not destroying it either. The debt ceiling thus far has been increasing at the same rate since 2006.


https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo5.htm

#EducateYourselfFoo (in my Mr T voice)

Who’s next?

 

[KPandian1]

We past the point of no return over a decade ago. The country is doomed. Whatever replaces it is to be determined but the world model of modern democracy is long gone.

This country was doomed when the GOP elected Nixon over Regan, and then the nation elected Nixon president. A slave labor nation was opened for business and the world decided to follow, even the Gold standard change.

By 1980, Reagan was gone, mentally. That the country did not see the Iran hostages' delayed release shows how masterful the Pied Pipers of Potomac are. The downward spiral has been the worse since then.

Fascists like to talk nationalism, but don't mind using slave labor - the Orange Fuhrer is another in a long line of such hypocrites.

Japan and Germany can produce/assemble cars in the USA; American car companies (just Ford and GM left) can't produce their cars in their own country.

Apple can never produce or assemble affordable iPhones in the USA.

 

[Fender2112]

Is it me, or is does it seem that this administration is actively trying to sabotage our economy?

That would require intelligence and forethought. Those don't exist in the Trump administration.

 

[Greenmeenie]

People need to think about this a lot more than they do. Your last point is a hope, not a fact. There are other options. Very unpleasant options, but they are options.

Soylent Green is peeeeople!

 

[gugy]

The sad part most of Trump voters still support him despite all the contrary facts. They will shout fake news, etc.
Waste of time deliberating with these folks. They do not want to see the truth.

Hillary despite the lousy sound bite, she was so right about calling them deplorable. Hit the nail on the head.

 

[KPandian1]

Wanting to enact policy that will hurt your neighbors because of their political views is beyond stupid. Good grief we have lost all sense of decency as a people.

Too much ugly people talking ugly on talk radio.

This clown-crap of a President is intent on making sure every single one of us suffers for everything in our lives, isn't he. He's acting as if the United States is his own personal power-leverage tool and is willing to hurt all of its citizens just to make sure he can bully someone else on the world stage.

All because they roasted him - or laughed at him when he was roasted.

 

[superlawyer15]

Tim Cook needs to put his money where his mouth is and aggressively donate to Democrats in the next election.

And alienate half of his customer base?

Lol at least now we know why you don’t run Apple.

 

[KPandian1]

if that is the case, wouldn't building the iPhones in America be cheaper? I though I saw some articles few years ago saying that the iPhone would only cost like 5% more if build in the USA?

No it won't!

To both sentences in the post.

Quote the articles so that we can not believe them.

 

[redneckitengineer]

That would require intelligence and forethought. Those don't exist in the Trump administration.

Right....Because his lack of intelligence and forethought didn’t help him win the election. Because ya know, like chess, you need not know how to move the right pieces before your opponent does. He’s intelligent as heck, tho I agree his wisdom may be lacking. Please learn the difference.

https://www.differencebtw.com/difference-between-intelligence-and-wisdom/

 

[alphaod]

So are we expecting a push this holiday season before the prices all go up?

 

[scottsjack]

Good work Mr. President. Until we stop financially propping up China it is going to grow into a greater enemy than it already is. This issue is a matter of national security. Shut them down!

 

[usarioclave]

You think China's leaders base policy on the pain of their population? Think again. That's how they've been in power for so many decades. Trump couldn't even apply much pressure to democratically controlled countries like Canada and Mexico.

They will, because they're afraid that in the medium term it will cause factories to shut down, leading to domestic unrest.

People in the West don't really understand China, and they don't understand how unstable China is. More specifically, the state of China is stable, but the governments are not necessarily as stable as they would have you believe. The China of today is only 70 years old...or even less, given that this is the China of Deng not Mao.

 

[KPandian1]

Hillary despite the lousy sound bite, she was so right about calling them deplorable. Hit the nail on the head.

That statement by her was unpresidential - she lost the mid-West just because of that one line. Enough to lose the Electoral College.
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Good work Mr. President. Until we stop financially propping up China it is going to grow into a greater enemy than it already is. This issue is a matter of national security. Shut them down!

Looks like China is shutting down the USA.

 

[brofkand]

As a lifelong vw van (bus, vanagon, eurovan) lover this is not what I want. It’s too small. Neat and all but not the van I wish vw would give us. They make it.. it’s called the vw California but for some stupid reason they won’t sell it in the US.

Probably because of the Chicken tax.

 

[groadyho]

Uhh it does disturb pretty much everyone...

I wish I was as confident as you about that. I see he still has a lot of support.
Boggles my mind how anyone can support him.

 

[MrJeffreyGee]

He better apply this tariff on all Walmart goods from China as well. Maybe then... the remaining Trump supports will realize what they voted for.

 

[normanfox]

alot of smart people here complain how trump tariff hurt American consumers. Politically, creating tariff is a huge risk with voters and can hurt the president. Why? consumers and big corporations do not like tariff/tax, looking at complains in this thread.

No president has ever done this for the last 20 years. all presidents talked about how China is cheating and stealing. but no president has done anything about it. In the meantime, U.S trade deficit with China is reaching over $500 billions a year. what does this mean? more job lost to China. go outside of urban America, plants and factories close and weed grow all over. you are selling your own children future so that you can buy and consumer with cheap products today. long-term death is hidden with short term happiness.

Ask yourself this question, "why would any presidents have a gut to do this, imposing tariff/tax on its own citizens?"

is it short-term pain so that we can have long-term prosperity?

 

[ugahairydawgs]

If it's Tim Cook's own personal money, he is free to do with his money however he wants.

But if it's Apple's cash hoard, is not Tim's Money. It belongs to the company and its investors and shareholders. Like me. I prefer that money stays apolitical.

Corporations cannot give politically. They can only pay lobbyists to argue on their behalf.