Tariffs look to be wiping out Halloween and Christmas merchandise from China ‘bigly’. Retailers are worried about holiday products. The trade war with China is so volatile that there isn’t a way to predict anything. What can they do? Not much. It’s up to tRump, and he’s not bending. Did I mention he lies? Of course, silly me, I’m sure you knew that. The latest is that he says he’s working with Beijing to work out a trade deal. Beijing says, most emphatically, “No, we aren’t.” I’m assuming he doesn’t want to be visibly caving and changing the tariff. How many companies aren’t able to afford those tariffs?
From Axios: “A slew of companies have warned of higher prices or have already increased them, including Procter & Gamble, Best Buy, Unilever, Ford, Shein, Temu, AutoZone, and Hermès. The CEOs of three of the biggest retailers — Walmart, Target, and Home Depot — privately warned Trump during an Oval Office meeting this week that his trade policy could trigger product shortages and price spikes.” Oh, wonderful. When even the big companies warn about this, it’s past time to do something about all the tariffs.
We don’t know if Agent Orange listened to them. And if he did, if it made any difference. This is hurting not just big companies, but smaller ones too. “We’re not eager to raise prices,” Skechers USA CFO John Vandemore said. “We would not be doing so were it not for the tariffs.” I know that Skechers is a really popular company. And wow, they’re considered a smaller company?
El Presidente Imbécil’s tariffs have sent retailers scrambling. Remember, there’s 10% on most everything else, including the penguins, with some differences for others. We have partnerships with some that were stunned by tRump WHO PAINTS HIS FACE ORANGE putting higher tariffs on them. Does this mean we’re killing those alliances, too? We’re already driving “regular” alliances away. Countries across the globe are working on methods to get around us. And again, I say, are we ever going to get those back?
The way the Cheeto Prophet is going, we could destroy ourselves by losing so, so much, just with tariffs. China doesn’t really need us. They are the second most powerful country in the world. They are well placed to take over all that we’re losing. The UK won’t need us soon. Neither will Canada. I am happy to know that the furor about Greenland and Canada seems to have died down for a while. Anything that the *people* of America have to say will get disregarded, or worse, be an investigation by the DOJ. I’m sure Blondi Barbie will be quite happy to do so, except it will make her look bad instead of good. The best thing we can do right now is a blue wave for Congress in 2026. Let’s get down to it.
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no freight no truckers. They voted for him and tariffs.
The effects of the tariff imposition have already been seen in real time. This is NOT some sort of ‘will they/won’t they’ , ‘will it happen or not?’ esoteric discussion. The number of freight containers coming in is effectively halved from previous. It has already happened. The new number of approx half the containers coming in has already left, they are on the water, on their way, at sea, travelling. Set to arrive.
From CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/22/busiest-us-ports-see-big-drop-in-chinese-freight-vessel-traffic.html
“The pullback in trade between the U.S. and China as a result of President Trump’s steep tariffs on Chinese goods and fears of a recession are starting to show up in major ports data, with a steep drop in container vessel traffic headed to Los Angeles and Long Beach.
For the week ending May 3, the number of freight vessels leaving China and headed to the Southern California ports, the main U.S. ports receiving Chinese freight and other Asian trade, is down 29% week-over-week, according to Port Optimizer, a tracking system for ships. Year-over-year, the data shows a 44% drop in vessels scheduled to arrive the week of May 4-May 10.
This data is updated on a daily basis based on the vessel manifests declaring the port destination. These vessels are either scheduled to leave Asia or are already on the water and headed to these ports.
Twelve vessels are scheduled to come in this week, down from 22 the week of April 20. Measured in shipping containers, a total of 62,568 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) are arriving the week of May 4-May 10, versus 120,608 TEUs as recently as the week of April 20-April 26.
The fallout from the ocean freight slowdown is beginning to hit ground transport linked to ports.
“We are at a tipping point on the West Coast,” said Ken Adamo, chief of analytics at DAT Freight & Analytics. “Looking at how many truck loads are available versus trucks, we’ve seen a precipitous drop, over 700,000 loads have evaporated nationally in the past week compared to two weeks prior,” he said.”
Truck drivers who voted Trump.
Welcome to the FO part of FAFO.
And to all that voted for him…F.U.!!!!!
“I am happy to know that the furor about Greenland and Canada seems to have died down for a while.”
He pulled the Canada stunt yet again in talking to TIME magazine just this past week. He’s not done with this stupidity, not even close.
🤔 And, if we take a closer look…History is repeating and We. Never. Learn! 🤨 These identical headlines are from 2018, 2019, and this month!! 🤬
“Trump’s trade war on Christmas”
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/28/18116736/trump-trade-war-tariffs-holiday-lights
“Trump’s tariffs mean a less merry Christmas in US”
“How Trump’s tariffs are putting Christmas at risk”
https://www.aol.com/mean-one-mr-trump-china-115334639.html