Chaos economy: Trump's new tariffs signal dark days for America

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Chaos economy: Trump's new tariffs signal dark days for America
How Trump thinks hitting Mexico and Canada with tariffs is supposed to solve America's drug problem is a mystery

By Heather Digby Parton
Columnist
Published February 3, 2025 9:53AM (EST)


(Salon) During the last election, economics was on everyone's minds. Despite the greater economy being healthy with an extraordinary job market not seen since the 1960s, people told pollsters that they were extremely upset about the high cost of living that had been brought on by the disruption of the pandemic and took a couple of years to finally sort out. In poll after poll, Americans said that inflation was the biggest problem facing the nation.

When asked what he planned to do about this, then-candidate Donald Trump's only answers were "tariffs!" and "growth." It was the cure-all for every economic pain that ailed us. Here he is answering a question about what specific legislation he would propose to deal with the high cost of child care. Yes, you guessed it: tariffs.

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Over the weekend, Trump followed through on his threats to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada and 10% on China. Imported goods from those nations will be hit with the new penalty beginning Tuesday, ostensibly because of immigration and fentanyl coming over the borders, which is ridiculous. There's no need to discuss Trump's obsession with immigration except to say that Mexico has been cooperating fully with U.S. demands and there simply is not a problem with illegal immigration at the Canadian border except maybe from Americans trying desperately to escape Trump's dystopia.

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This is a person suffering from severe grandiose delusions and they're getting worse. But I'm afraid this is just the tip of the iceberg. His co-president Elon Musk is suffering from the same malady and they've banded together to take America and the rest of the world on their wild, psychotic ride-along. Fasten your seatbelts. ................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/02/03/chaos-economy-new-tariffs-signal-dark-days-for-america/