Trump again out of touch with reality....tiny twittering fingers dictating economic policies originating in a random noise-generating brain. The GOP needs to be completely destroyed in November and rebuilt based upon sanity. In the meantime, Trump must be impeached.
7
Apple consumers should band together and get a bailout like the farmers who were damaged by tariffs. Who knew trade could be so complicated?
5
Next Trump will be forcing Ford to build the car he wants us all to have. It'll be called the "Model T, for Trump," and it'll come in any color you want, as long as it's Orange.
21
As to automobile quality & performance , Europeans will not buy a gas guzzler made in the USA. The quality and performance is not there. So Europe`s offer to go to Zero tariffs on auto trade will not result in Detroit shipping cars to Europe. Ford already makes the right quality there but is in stiff competition with VW , BMW , Mercedes , etc.
China will catch up in quality and start to compete with Toyota which sells their vehicles ALL over the world. FYI . VW , Toyota & Hyundai are the world`s largest auto manufactures. The Trumpers will be happy in their ignorance of what is available in the wider world.
4
In spite of the fact that the NYT quotes a person calling the tariffs a tax on Americans, both the MSM and the Dems are doing a terrible messaging job of it.
Here would be one idea for the Dems;
'Trump's taxes of imports on the American people is being imposed to pay for the trillion dollar tax cut for the wealthy'
Or something along those line. It hardly matters if it's explicitly true, it is at least in the gas cloud of reality, unlike anything to come from the far right men's stall of the GOP.
This is another stupid gesture on Trump's part, which will deny Americans one more automotive choice.
7
Now try to imagine the republican reaction if President Obama bullied private companies about their business decisions. They would be holding impeachment hearings.
33
Just what America doesn’t need anyway, another white car on the road that looks like something out of a Star Wars movie. China can keep them all.
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@John Doe
right we need even more pick-up trucks , SUVs and "crossovers "
7
Bad president and bad businessman.
14
Trump seems not to understand that Ford and GM have built cars for foreign markets in those markets for a nearly a century and that Chrysler is now owned by an Italian company (after being owned by a German one). They've built cars in Canada for more than a century. Somehow the domestic industry thrived.
Since the 70's foreign auto makers have built cars in the US for sale in the US and for export to other markets including their home markets. And yes, they've built cars in their home markets and exported them here. What Trump appears to want is for all cars sold in the US to be made here and for cars made here to have free access to foreign markets as well. That has to be the only reason he recently rejected an EU offer to do away with auto tariffs altogether; that and not wanting to give away US makers protection from the 25% tariffs on imported pickup trucks, the most profitable segment of the market.
In agriculture he seems to want unfettered access to foreign markets for our farmers through the end of protections and subsidies for foreign farmers while leaving in place the wide range of tariff protections, price supports and subsidies (for irrigation for example) available to American agriculture.
He wants in other words a zero sum game in which all the advantages accrue to American producers. This will never happen. The sooner he accepts that, assuming he is capable of understanding it, the better.
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@blueingreen66
"He wants in other words a zero sum game in which all the advantages accrue to American producers."
You seem to be confusing America with China, which steals technology, coddles, subsidizes and protects with tariffs its native industries, dumps products well below cost on foreign markets, and otherwise violates just about any international law, regulation, rule, or norm it pleases.
Our president is simply attempting to even the playing field.
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@NorthernVirginia
Whatever problems we have with China would best be addressed directly. BlueInGreen is talking about our current policies with all international trading partners.
1
Uh, what he said was that Trump wants us to lie, cheat and steal just like China. You're aware that this is how you pour the foundation for wars, yes?
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I didn't think it needed to be said, but I guess it really does:
Tariffs are taxes on imports that are paid by the PURCHASER (namely, the US), NOT the exporter. Walmart doesn't pay sales tax, WE do. Jim Beam doesn't pay the excise tax on alcohol, WE do. And Philip Morris doesn't pay the tax on tobacco, WE do.
So WE are only people who will be forced to pay these taxes, which is contrary to GOP's stated aim of lowering Americans' tax burden.
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@Anonymous Bosch
Elasticity of demand: how sensitive consumers are to price movements.
If consumers are truly sensitive to an increase in price of a good, the demand for that good is highly elastic, and thus, demand will go down and consumers will buy less of it. If a company wants to maintain or increase demand for that good, it will lower its prices (it will eat the tariff).
2
@NorthernVirginia
Ford has implied that the margin does not permit it
2
@SJB
The history of the US car industry is that it makes all of its profit on its top-of-the-line models, it does not much better than break-even on mid-range cars, and it loses money on small cars.
I get that trump wants these companies to build their product here in the States and that these tariffs would be all the incentive they need. However, that’s the kind of overly simplistic reasoning that my 92 year old father uses, which reveals little to no understanding of how the global economy works.
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@Mike, yet somehow such a mentality has kept him alive all these years. Totally astonishing.
2
@John Doe
Speaking of overly simplistic reasoning.
So, the "like I'm smart, a stable genius" "D" student from Wharton is also an expert on automobile manufacturing. Who would have thought...Stick to politics, you have enough challenges there.
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@Njnelson You may have noticed that Wharton has done its best to avoid mentioning this particular alum.
8
So Trump knows all about making and selling cars, as well as IPhones? Who knew?
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@Bob Rossi
Aw, how complicated can it be?
3
Maybe we can outsource the Presidency. No wait, we've done that already. Thanks GOP!
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@Jean So true! The new Republican Congress motto: Whatever Putin wants, Putin gets.
5
@Solar Power
If only Trump could be plugged into the grid. His lies/hot air could provide enough energy to power the nation.
Another data point on the curve of incompetence. Remember, last century's dictator, produced a locally built car of the people, called the "Volkswagen". But wait, in Trump's time, it would be named after himself...the Trump Wagen. I am sure we could come up with a contest for a pejorative equivalent name...Klown Kar comes to mind. Besides, citing profit margins, Ford wisely declined to be associated with this joke.
28
Can we impose a tariff on Trump? After all, he was made in Russia, and we could pay off the national deficit, if we had a dollar for every stupid thing that comes out of his mouth.
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@Brannon Perkison
This should be the statement of the year! So very true.
1
@Brannon Perkison
I'm in! IRS, please put a checkbox on the next 1040.
2
Tariff == tax. Pure and simple.
Trump's the ultimate RINO.
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@Peter Republicans ALWAYS raise taxes by reigniting inflation, which already has wiped out any gains to working Americans from the tax cut for the idle rich.
9
Don Trump ran a smaller real estate development and brand licensing company; he has no clue how a company as exponentially larger than anything he has run actually works. And with the aid of the Hubble telescope you could not find Trump's interest in learning what he doesn't know.
There is a very good reason why this man has had numerous business failures, including multiple bankruptcies: he is not a good business man. That's what his documented history shows. Lord only knows what the tax returns will show.
He is a complete fraud and a cheap con artist. He was dismissed once by a (documented) NY billionaire, perhaps Bloomberg, as "A clown who lives on credit." Sums it up nicely.
He is in way, way over his head.
61
I wouldn't buy a Chinese car, not even if Ford put their badge on it. Shame on them. Trump aside, why wouldn't an American car company sell a Chinese car?
7
@Hat Trick
I have a coffee mug from the late 1980's when Japan was taking over the auto industry. It reads:
Unemployed?
Depressed?
Hungry?
Eat your import!
3
@Hat Trick Please forgive the typo. I meant to say "Why WOULD an American car company sell a Chinese car?"
2
It is incredible that an unscrupulous idiot that couldn't even make a profit from a casino has the temerity to instruct Ford and Apple as to how to run their businesses.
76
The US Constitution says: "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises …"
It's time for Congress to take back its powers and decide what tariffs to impose.
27
Trump’s foreign trade policy seems to be about saying things which get him in the news, regardless of whether they are a good idea, or true. But at least that’s consistent with his other policies.
16
@John M
I don't have a lot of faith in the intelligence of the current Congress. But, maybe the next one can do this?
6
A tariff increases taxes on the middle class and republican voters who voted trump into office and they clap.
They did the same thing when republicans passed a tax cut for the uber rich and corporations by putting it on the national credit card that EVERYONE else gets to pay for.
I DON'T GET IT.
61
The last paragraph tells it all.
Tariffs are the Trump Administration's back door way to increase taxes on the 99%, while pretending to be helping the same people by creating (non-existent) jobs.
I am sure they consider it a brilliant way to pay for the huge tax cuts to the 1% and still have tax money to pay for the increased federal cost of privatizing so many federal functions.
44
Mr.Trump is trying to direct industrial policy from Washington AND he has no economic wisdom.He has already tried to "help" Carrier and Harley Davidson .That did not work out so well.He has no idea of the intricacies of tariff policy and is only reacting with his usual mantra"They are not playing fair so I will punish them".This is no way to plan economic policy.
58
@JanetMichael - Send Mr. Trump back to Wharton.
He needs some refresher courses/updates on how
the US economy works.
14
@JanetMichael he has no idea how manufacturing works at all.
4
He failed. Period
1
I often wonder why companies that outsource labor don’t outsource executive management. Outsourcing one executive position would save the equivalent cost of how many line workers?
22
That's easy, executives don't want to live in the countries they outsource to, too dangerous.
13
Why do Americans suffer the delusion that other countries are more dangerous than ours. Statistics tell a very different story.
16
I've lived in many countries in Europe and Asia, and you could not pay me enough to live in polluted and corrupt China, which is where I'm assuming the majority of these "outsourced" executives would need to be. Take a look at the air quality in India and China, and that should be enough to tell you why nobody with any agency would want to live there.
1
At best it shows the complete ignorance of what manufacturing business is, i.e., economy of scale. Not surprising from a guy who made his fortune conning NY real estate deals where it’s always one tower that is different from the next. Perhaps he’ll think about using taxpayers money to subsidize every car manufactured domestically. I’m sure many developing countries can sell him cookbooks of nationalizing and subsidizing national economies. The bad old GOP will just need to wipe out its tradition of espousing small government and self reliance — oh, sorry, they’ve abandoned those principles to usher in the recent crops of so-called conservatives — and instead start a socialist system in which Central government is your one and only employer and be ready to join the queue to get your assigned national cars by the year 2025.
The current regime is a disgrace! This is not the country that I love and cherish. Let’s do it right in the coming mid-term.
43
I thought Republicans were for limited government, certainly against government interference in business. Yet we now have a supposedly Republican president telling businesses what to do, and supposedly Republican lawmakers in Congress not only let him do it without a murmur of protest but actually hold hearings on how to control other businesses, such as internet sales and social media content. My, how the GOP has changed.
93
It's almost like Trump has no grasp of long range industrial planning, modern supply chains, or international trade...
102
@Angry- Almost?!
11
@Angry: Not "almost". He has no clue as to any of the above.
13
No, it's exactly like that.
4
The guy who drove the company he inherited from his daddy into multiple bankruptcies telling the first trillion dollar company, Apple, and one of the world's major auto makers, Ford, how to do business.
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