This guy would flunk Econ 101 (and 101 Everything Else) because he’s a lazy moron who has never learned anything about anything:

The tariffs are also meant to boost US coffers by addressing inherent imbalances in trade between the nations, which Trump says consistently give the US the short end of the stick.

“The USA has major deficits with Canada, Mexico, and China (and almost all countries!), owes 36 Trillion Dollars, and we’re not going to be the ‘Stupid Country’ any longer,” Trump proclaimed.

The White House made clear that the Trump administration believes America’s biggest trading partners have a lot more to lose in a trade war than the US does.

“Access to the American market is a privilege,” the White House said.

“While trade accounts for 67% of Canada’s GDP, 73% of Mexico’s GDP, and 37% of China’s GDP, it accounts for only 24% of U.S. GDP. However, in 2023 the U.S. trade deficit in goods was the world’s largest at over $1 trillion.”

I’m not going to bother addressing the level of economic illiteracy on display because what’s the point? Besides believing that a trade deficit is a subsidy from the country with the deficit to the country with the surplus, another factor here is that on some level Trump believes that actually paying for stuff that you’ve contracted to buy makes you a sucker, and he has lived his whole life on the basis of that principle.

The financial markets are going to melt down today because it’s finally dawning on the Masters of the Universe that their brilliant plan to control and manipulate Stupid Nixon has a big flaw in it, although they still can’t quite put their finger on exactly what the flaw might be.

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