Summary
Trump warned automakers not to raise prices after announcing a 25% tariff on imported vehicles starting April 3, claiming the tariffs would be “great” and benefit U.S. manufacturing.
Industry leaders, including GM, Ford, and Stellantis CEOs, expressed concerns about inevitable price increases, with experts warning tariffs could add thousands to car costs.
Auto suppliers stated that absorbing tariffs is impossible, and dealers fear affordability challenges for consumers.
While the United Auto Workers union support the move as a job creator, trade groups predict higher prices and fewer manufacturing jobs.
So he’s basically telling the other billionaires to eat the cost of the tariff themselves and NOT pass them on to the consumer.
Trump really is stupid enough to start biting the hands that gave him his current position, all because Musk tells him to.
If it actually worked it’s a funny way to say, let’s tax corporations. It would never happen though because it makes line go down.
it makes line go down.
You often see the question asked online “What radicalized you?”
For me, I was working for a telecommunications provider as a manager and was told that neither myself nor my staff would see any raises or bonuses that year because “the company didn’t make any money.”
The kicker being that the company made 6 billion that year. But because the money counters had projected them to make 7 Billion, and they didn’t hit it, giving out raises would make the stock price drop even more than it was already going to. Essentially, not enough profit, is the same as NO profit.
But you better believe the CEO and executives got their bonus that year.
it makes line go down.
“Projected profit” versus “actual profit”. Thank you, cause I’ve always wondered how a company can make a profit and high up people in that business can say that the actual workers don’t deserve a pay rise.
The really stupid part is a well paid and well educated work force will create more money than the alternative.
Problem is that a well paid and well educated workforce will make more money ‘sometime after the next quarter’ and in a diffuser way spread evenly across the board.
Stiffing people and withholding raises will show a profit within a quarter someone’s bonus is based on.
Guess which option the people who get the bonuses will pick.
Honestly the ‘fiduciary responsibility to maximize shareholder value’ might be the phrase we’ll look back on as the downfall of the human race.
Is that… is that a portrait of Reagan on the wall behind him? The man has no concept of irony…
It feels so gross upvoting a picture and quote from Reagan.
Agreed. But this is a stopped clock situation, and the sentiment is not wrong.
When you look at the context of the quote, he was cynically using those words to defend a great injustice.
Truth is truth, no matter the source.
you’re upvoting an even worse than Reagan meme
I felt pretty gross posting it, so, ya know, fair enough.
May Reagan burn in hell.
Especially because that quote was to counter pressure to say that trade relations were invalid if one party wasn’t protecting the environment and human rights (for example, by imposing slave-labor conditions on factory workers).
Oh 100% agreed, Reagan was a piece of shit, I just find it hilarious that Trump reveres a man who spoke openly against exactly what he’s doing.
It’s not just irony he has no knowledge of history. He know that Reagan said that. All he knows is that Reagan has an R beside his name and maybe possibly the words trickle down economics.
He know that Reagan said that.
Since we’re talking about Trump I am 100% confident you are wrong on that.
He doesn’t care about R, just ego.
Reagan also never used the words trickle down economics. Nor would pretty.much anyone Trump talks to. He wouldn’t associate Reagan with that either.
I’m going to guess from context that they meant to write ‘doesn’t know’, but…
Trump: worship me
Auto makers: you literally fucked us all over.
Trump: and I expect you to thank me for it.
At least they’re wearing suits, am I right?
At this point, I am surprised he hasn’t ordered the treasury department to just mint more cash.
That will come. He’ll also stop payments on Treasury Bonds. Not paying agreed upon obligations is his MO in business.
I think that’s what happened to Nazi Germany, so just wait a little while.
Meanwhile, prepare to barter.
Don’t raise prices ! Just sell at a loss ! How hard could it be ?
Not sure what we should expect when the advice is coming from a “businessman” who’s art of the deal has been to bankrupt 6 or 7 businesses…
And what, two or three of those were casinos? Anyone who’s worked in one can tell you how hard it is to do that. They absolutely PRINT money. It would be impressive, if he wasn’t running the country in the same way.
I’m still not sure how you fuck up bad enough to bankrupt a casino, let alone multiple.
That’s why Putin picked him.
Yeah, you can make it up in volume!
Why’s he so utterly obsessed with tariffs? Like he thinks they just fix everything. It’s so stupid.
Usually, it takes Congress to agree on something to raise taxes on the working class. With tariffs, he can do it by himself like a real dictator would.
Keep in mind that Congress delegated that power to the President, and (if they were ever to become vertebrates) they could rescind that power too.
Isn’t the narrative that he’s jacking up Tariffs to remove the income tax? Like how it used to be 100 years ago or some shit.
He’s using the money to pay for the impending wars he’s trying to start.
He’s using the money to pay for the impending wars he’s trying to start.
Or the wars that he’s going to accidentally start.
Trump is not nearly as smart as people seem to think he is.
I 100% guarantee you that someone in his inner circle has convinced him that tariffs fix everything and it’s now the entirety of his economic playbook.
It also hurts America and alienates us from our allies, which is what his puppet master wants, so two birds/one stone.
He had to learn that even a president doesn’t have absolute power to rule. And he’s intellectually incapable of drafting and passing proper laws. Therefore, he uses decrees and tariffs, tools that even a teenager could use. His actions reveal that he does not really understand the complexity of society or the economy.
Trump’s thing are 1:1 negotiations, like with Putin. He’s all about making a deal personally and people gushing over how great of a deal he made. Unfortunately he’s not nearly as good as he thinks he is.
Tariffs are meant as his opening power move, like the used car salesman’s firm handshake. Same (I hope…) as the fuckery on Canada or Greenland. They are the “I am strong and I want something, let’s sit and negotiate”.
Problem is that the used car salesman only has two outcomes: customer buys the clunker or customer walks away. But it rarely happens that “customer is strong-armed into buying the clunker but customer is fire-fighter and next time will let the car dealership burn down”.
Unfortunately he’s not nearly as good as he thinks he is.
Let’s be clear about it: he’s absolutely worthless at it.
And to those who adhere to the lazy “Trump is always transactional” pseudo-explanation: Trump is never transactional when it comes to Putin. The words you’re looking for in that case are “consistently, predictably servile.” And I wouldn’t call his multiple divide-and-rule extortion schemes “negotiations” either. He’s just seeing how much he can get away by strong-arming weaker nations or organisations.
I mean he’s essentially just following project 2025. They clearly didn’t want him to think too much this time around.
I don’t know, I feel like if he was dumber than most people thought he would be vegetative.
The list of allies is not that long at the moment.
The list of allies is not that long at the moment.
And continues to shrink every time he opens his mouth.
The government takes the increase at import from the importer. He’s the government. He’s telling them he’s keeping the money that he inserted himself into the supply chain.
Like it’s probably going to his personal bank account.
Like he thinks they just fix everything.
Like those who pull his strings know that tariffs are an effective means of economic sabotage.
In addition to what others have said, he also enjoys the direct power it gives him over corporate leaders. He wants to coerce them into subservience so they have to kiss his ass and be nice to him. Tariffs give him something to hold over their heads.
Yeah… that’s not how that works. He’s shitting on us and blaming everyone else for it
While the United Auto Workers union support the move as a job creator
Yeah, I bet the Canadian members of the UAW will be stoked to hear this
The United Auto Workers(UAW), […] that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico) and southern Ontario, Canada
Capitalism at work, shithead. Get fucked
Be sure not to offset the costs by eliminating executive raises and bonuses, or by trimming their ridiculously large salaries! Those are sacrosanct!
So, now when the automotive manufacturers inevitably raise their prices, he can point and whine “but I told them not to, see it’s their fault”. And the foaming masses will blindly follow the pied piper off the cliff, further into fascism. I hate how fucking predictable this is becoming. It’s like a terrible abc sitcom. Only it’s scary real life.
“The price is the same as last year’s but today’s model comes with x, y, z optionals that make the price go that high”
Options include: wheels, seats, and paint
No it’ll probably be “options” like a hood paint protection film, premium floor mats, door trim protectors and other dealer installed “options” that are in no way optional and get added to every car with a 800% markup.
claiming the tariffs would be “great” and benefit U.S. manufacturing
would be wild to get his elevator pitch in this. lol. without saying “trade war” and bigly fear mongering.
The man simply does not know what a tariff is, and is doing this because otherwise Putin releases the tapes. Its simple
If I were him I’d just let Putin release the damn tapes, since it seems impossible that anything could actually damage his image with his rabid followers anyway.
But that’d require one functioning brain cell, and if he had that we probably wouldn’t be in this position now to begin with.
If the tapes existed they wouldn’t phase him, he has already weathered more shameful charges/realizations against him with no loss in the mania driving his sycophants. He was promised to be given enough wealth to finally prove himself to his dead father.
he has already weathered more shameful charges
If the tapes exist, you don’t know their contents, so there’s no way you can truthfully say that.
The mind boggles at what could beat what’s already been outed, best not to think into that too deeply, I suppose.
I know he’s dumb, but god. Wow.
