Donald Trump just imposed a 25 percent tariff on virtually all goods produced by America’s two largest trading partners — Canada and Mexico. He simultaneously established a 20 percent across-the-board tariff on Chinese goods.

As a result, America’s average tariff level is now higher than at any time since the 1940s.

Meanwhile, China and Canada immediately retaliated against Trump’s duties, with the former imposing a 15 percent tariff on American agricultural products and the latter putting a 25 percent tariff on $30 billion of US goods. Mexico has vowed to mount retaliatory tariffs of its own.

This trade war could have far-reaching consequences. Trump’s tariffs have already triggered a stock market sell-off and cooling of manufacturing activity. And economists have estimated that the trade policy will cost the typical US household more than $1,200 a year, as the prices of myriad goods rise.

All this raises the question: Why has the US president chosen to upend trade relations on the North American continent? The stakes of this question are high, since it could determine how long Trump’s massive tariffs remain in effect. Unfortunately, the president himself does not seem to know the answer.

In recent weeks, Trump has provided five different — and contradictory — justifications for his tariffs on Mexico and Canada…

…more in the article.

    • sunfur82@lemmy.ca
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      9 minutes ago

      He has to be. I can’t think of any other reason why he’d be trying to hard to antagonize and disrespect long-time allies, while praising Russia. He then made that ridiculous statement that Ukraine started the war, when Russia was the one who invaded them, and also said that Zelensky should be ‘nicer’ to Putin. But Putin, who ordered the attack that caused who knows how many deaths, shouldn’t be ‘nicer’?

      There was also the first term, where Trump fired the FBI director over an investigation into Russia, and then told Russia that he fired ‘that nut job’. What kind of message does that send to their own people? Not just that he fired the director, but that he bragged about it to the people he was investigating.

      I honestly think most of the GOP knows, but they’re too embarrassed to admit it. Or maybe it’s just pride, they think it’s beneath them to be held accountable to anyone.

    • Goodmorningsunshine@lemmy.world
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      26 minutes ago

      Yeah. Dude knows exactly why he’s weakening America as much and on every front as possible, it’s just he can’t exactly say the truth and isn’t smart enough to effectively lie about it.