The entire world is wondering what is going on with Donald Trump’s Pushmi Pullyou tariffs. One day they’re on, the next day they’re off. Then Trump gets annoyed at something and doubles the tariffs. So, there. Ha ha on you. Then a couple of adults sit down (yesterday it was Doug Ford and Howard Lutnick — well, one and a half adults) and then economic catastrophe is averted. For the moment. Until the next day.
Trump is talking about a crazy long game and a golden age following “disturbance” and “temporary hardship” but what do those words really mean? Retail outlets are shaky now and some could go under. Layoffs are taking place in the private sector as fast as Elon Musk is firing people in the government sector. Any cash business is at risk right now. And a Tesla photo op in front of the White House will help things how?
A top economics reporter goes off script on national TV: “I am going to say this at risk of my job, but what President Trump is doing is insane.”
Ireland O'Leary Rosie Boycotting Inflation Bill Burr Delaware 2.8% in February Shaheen Mr. McBridepic.twitter.com/E5dY87tI14
— KushThru BLM Movement Forever (@KushthruBlm) March 12, 2025
Meanwhile, the stock market is in free fall and everybody is waiting for the next shoe to drop.
But the bigger point, of course, is that this reality-TV psychodrama remains a ludicrous way to run a continental economy. After all this noise, what are we left with? A business community that’s starting to develop a serious eye twitch, waiting around to discover which world leaders Trump respects enough to allow them to do some productive business with.
Meanwhile, the actual trade barriers keep clunking into place. Our 25 percent global tariff on steel and aluminum went into effect overnight. Europe immediately retaliated, announcing $28 billion in counter-tariffs on U.S. goods.
It bears reflecting for a minute on the hand Trump currently holds. His sheer capricious scorn and malice have forged, out of practically nowhere, a political coalition of anti-American zealotry in Canada, our heretofore friendly neighbor in the north. He belittled them as unworthy of nation status, rolled his eyes at our historic ties, and threatened them with the “friendly” possibility of absorption as our 51st state. And then he instigated a game of economic chicken with them.
Americans have no animus toward Canadians; they are not signing on to suffer economically provided they can make Canada suffer more. Trump cannot even sell them on a real vision of what this economic suffering would be for, offering only vague gestures toward cracking down on fentanyl (which comes over the Canadian border in objectively small amounts), trust-me-guys promises that untold wealth lies just over the tariff horizon, and shitposting rhetoric about Canada becoming the 51st state.
Most of the pain hasn’t even arrived yet, and already American voters are showing signs of fatigue. Trump’s economic approval rating has taken a severe dip since his inauguration, from +6 to -10 in the latest Reuters polling. CNN’s numbers this morning tell the same story—a bit more on that below.
Trump started this joyride on a lark. You can’t help but wonder if he’s starting to wish he could find a way off.
Having observed Trump for the past 9, 10 years now I think it’s safe to venture a guess as to what he’s doing: He’s throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping some of it sticks. He has no idea what he’s doing. He’s gotten himself into this mess because MAGA loves the big, crazy, swaggering talk. That’s how he got back into office. MAGA, and enough Independents, Republicans, and disgruntled people in general, decided to go ahead and give the crazy wheel another spin and see if Trump could deliver on his promises. Now we are finding out. And so is he.
Americans are unimpressed by Trump’s economic stewardship, a new CNN poll finds. The poll, conducted by SSRS, has 56 percent of the public disapproving of his handling of the economy and 44 percent approving. Those are basically inverted from the perceptions that existed at the end of Trump’s first term. Trump’s job approval rating is at 45 percent approve, 54 percent disapprove, which is also not particularly great but actually somewhat in line with where he was in March 2017. The thing to remember is that Trump is, ostensibly, still in a bit of a honeymoon period here. Yes, the stock market has tanked, and if it turns around that could certainly improve his numbers. But he is also benefiting from his diehard voters giving him the benefit of the doubt. The Wall Street Journal, for example, has a piece today squarely on the Trump voters who are downplaying the hits he has delivered to their 401(k)s.
Trump and Musk are running the economy into the ground. Trump wants the tariffs so badly because he figures that he can run a shakedown racket and get vigorish from the business people he exempts from the tariffs, but it’s not as clear cut as that. Economics is complex and Trump lacks the mentality to deal with anything complex. He only sees things in simplistic black and white terms.
And Musk is out over his skiis as well. Musk has a failing car business, rockets that keep blowing up and his DOGE endeavor is a joke. He hasn’t found the massive fraud, he and Trump just lie about having found it.
And always keep one eye on the calendar. It is the 12th of March and between now and the 12th of Never, Trump will not deliver anything resembling a golden age and Musk will not achieve an ultra efficient overhaul of government. This is sheer fantasy. The only issue is this: How soon before Trump and Musk have to cave in and listen to the actual economists and world leaders who know how this works? And how much destruction and pain do the rest of us have to endure before they get there?
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Remember the first Trump disaster of a Trump Presidential term and all the deaths he was 100% responsible for and the treasonous January 6?? Did I miss his finally admitting his screw up and trying to turn things around? He or Musk will NEVER admit to a mistake and try to fix anything. It just will never never never happen. Maybe because what’s happening is exactly what Putin has ordered him to do.
As we move into them, now might be good time to remember that for thousands of years, we have been warned to beware the ides of March.
Of course, with this crowd, it’s just one more thing to add to the list of things to watch out for.
“How soon before Trump and Musk have to cave in and listen to the actual economists and world leaders who know how this works?”
The won’t cave. They’re too willfully ignorant to figure out that they’re fucking up everything. What needs to happen is for some group (pissed off Dems or Repubs who have come to their senses, who care about our Country and not their reelection), to go in there, sit Trump down, gag him, tie him up, and factcheck every lie he’s ever told, right to face. Do that 1000 times.
So refreshing to read the unvarnished truth. Just nailing it! Thank you Ursula.