Trump is a game show host and he likes to win. And he is breaking records, both Mad King Donald and his sidekick, Elon, but they’re not the ones that were aimed at. Not even close. The world markets are doing their predicted drunken gyrations and the dollar has fallen in value, as Trump attempts to push through legislation which is catastrophic — except in his fantasy. We are literally being expected as a nation to indulge a pair of drug-addled narcissists in their make believe delusions of what they think might work to make a better world, while all the while their ideas are “hitting the brick wall of reality.” But if Trump keeps pushing and he undoubtedly will, he’ll likely trigger a global recession — his second, since his grotesque mishandling of COVID contributed to the last one. First, get up to speed on recent efforts to forestall Trump’s madness.
The smart money says Trump will continue to push for his delusion because that’s who his. And just as a comical side note, Musk’s cybertruck has beaten the 1958 Ford Edsel as the biggest flop in automotive history.
“Demand is off the charts,” Musk bragged in November 2023, just before the vehicle started shipping to customers. “We have over 1 million people who have reserved the car.”
Tesla modified its Austin Gigafactory to produce up to 250,000 Cybertrucks a year, but its unique design – which Musk has boasted was based on “zero market research whatsoever” – makes it noncompliant with safety standards in many overseas markets and off-putting to many would-be buyers.
“The spectacular failure of Cybertruck was a failure of empathy,” Noble said. “Everything from the bed configuration to the cab configuration to its performance and all sorts of pickup truck duty-cycle issues, it’s just not empathetic to a pickup truck buyer.”
Tesla spent an estimated $900 million developing the Cybertruck, which sells for more than twice what Musk predicted, but none of that work can be used on the company’s other vehicles, and now it’s currently sitting on $200 million in unsold inventory.
“Does it have a demonstrated technology that could be used elsewhere by the company? That is not the case,” said industry researcher Glenn Mercer. “Can the manufacturing plant make all this other stuff based on investments for Cybertruck? No, it can’t. An unpainted stainless steel vehicle just doesn’t have that much broad traction.”
Twitter, the cybertruck, the Wisconsin judge election, the losses are beginning to mount up and get expensive. But going back to Trump, his lashing out with tariffs and the reciprocal tariffs could put us in another global recession.
A truly enormous shock is needed to tip the entire global economy into recession. Since World War II, there have been two of these events: the financial crisis of 2008-09, and the coronavirus pandemic of 2020.
Why it matters: President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, if they stay in place and especially if they face retaliation from targeted nations, could be the third such economic earthquake in 17 years.
Follow the money: The U.S. imported $3.3 trillion of goods in 2024. That’s more than $25,000 per household.
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If the new tariffs work out to an average of 29%, per Evercore, then U.S. importers would have to pay about $1 trillion in tariffs per year, or $7,300 per household.
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Realistically, that would never happen. Many goods will just not get imported any more, creating shortages and large price hikes.
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But if U.S. imports plunge, that would remove a key driver of the global economy, especially for export-dependent countries like Germany and China.
Zoom in: The total 54% tariff on imports from China is particularly punitive.
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China exports lots of high-tech goods like iPhones, but it’s also the engine that provides affordable goods to millions of financially stretched families on low incomes.
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As such, the China tariff alone could cause a significant increase in poverty.
Zoom out: The last 75 years or so of globalization have created a complex web of interdependent economies, which explains sayings like “when the United States sneezes, Latin America catches pneumonia.”
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If U.S. tariffs cause our major trading partners to slide into recession, that would devastate U.S. exports, which totaled $2.1 trillion in goods last year, plus another $1.1 trillion in services. And that’s even before those partners start implementing retaliatory tariffs.
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“This is a game changer for the global economy,” Fitch Ratings economist Olu Sonola wrote in a note Wednesday. “Many countries will likely end up in a recession.”
Wrecking national security and sparking a global recession in a little over sixty days. Hey, that’s some track record for a new administration. Oh, and don’t forget the innocent people that are now in jail or prison under the immigration laws and the suspension of due process. That’s something else you don’t see in just any presidential administration.
Buckle up. This carnival ride is going to explode, we just don’t know how soon, what the damage will be, or any other details. But you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. The only guarantees in Trump world are spectacle and there is no low they won’t go.
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Zoomers, if you can spare a little green energy to keep the Little Political Blog That Could trekking through cyberspace, we would appreciate it. We’re in it for the long haul, every step of the way. Thanks. Ursula
We’re not even at 100 days and look at the achievements of the new Trump regime.
Achievements and results that have been and can, in future, be claimed by no-one else, ever.
A major security scandal involving the most senior members of the administration.
Stagflation, until now, not believed to be possible to induce so fast.
And a recession. Not just in the USA but in the whole world!
And all this while completely destroying America’s good name and trustworthiness and destroying the entire world economic system set up at vast effort, by millions of hard working Americans over eighty plus years, that put America at the center of – and effectively in control of – the economy of the whole world.
It’s truly Making America Something Again.
But not Great.
It’s certainly an achievement few thought possible.
“Zoom in: The total 54% tariff on imports from China is particularly punitive.”
I wonder if Drumpf-branded merchandise (like the majority of the stuff he sells at his various properties) is exempt from the tariffs? As noted in the 2016 election cycle (and I haven’t heard of any significant changes since Drumpf first took office in Jan of 2017), a huge percentage of the Drumpf-labelled merch carries the “Made in China” label.
If exemptions don’t apply to the overpriced garbage, I’d hate to be the poor guy (or gal) having to explain to Drumpf why they had to raise the prices and why sales are down (even more than before). And if exemptions do apply, it’d be nice for someone (preferably a Democratic politician) to ask why does Drumpf’s crap receive exemptions from the tariffs since the ONLY possible reason is that Drumpf PERSONALLY benefits from the sales of that garbage.
This lot provide an insightful analysis of Dear Leader – https://theshovel.com.au/2025/04/04/man-who-bankrupts-casinos/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=other
Somehow the billionaires will profit and the rest of us will starve. Republican politics as usual.We desperately need to ban SuperPacs and allow minimum donations from.individuals,and none from corporations. Citizens United must gp,and politicians mudt be banned from.lobbying jobs until at leasy 5years out of office, preferably ten.
Somehow, I knew decades ago, taking various hallucinogens, riding the psychic ups and downs for hours, and washing back up on the beach of the ‘real world’, would come in handy someday. Somehow I’ve lost something valuable. During the bad sections of a ‘trip’, I could remind myself I was on drugs. That luxury is gone. Goddamnit.