XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.society.liberalism, alt.atheism
XPost: alt.fun, alt.politics.democrats.d
The president signaled that the U.S. doesn’t care about its allies and trading
partners—including Taiwan.
By Phillips Payson O’Brien
April 14, 2025, 6 AM ET
Donald Trump’s tariff campaign has a clear geopolitical winner, and it’s not the
United States. It’s China.
After the U.S. president announced steep tariffs earlier this month on imports from many countries around the world, including some of America’s closest trading partners and military allies, markets plunged, so Trump backed down significantly. But the damage is done: The most striking thing about Trump’s original tariff list, which included islands inhabited mostly by penguins but excluded Russia and North Korea, is how harsh it was to countries that for decades have based their security on working with the United States.
Japan, South Korea, and Thailand—three strategically located states with successful economies—all faced tariffs of 24 percent or more. Other countries,
such as India and Vietnam, that are not formal U.S. allies but share America’s
interest in countering Chinese power in Asia, faced high tariffs as well. Taiwan, a democratically governed island that sells essential microchips to the United States and credibly fears invasion by China, faced a 32 percent tariff. Even though Trump suspended these and other tariffs for 90 days as he wrestles with the economic mess caused by his choices, they remain a lingering threat.
Trump is showing that he is willing to violate long-standing norms and strike at
the core of other countries’ prosperity—and that nothing in the American system
will stop a president hell-bent on punishing his own country’s allies for the sake of domestic politics.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/04/trump-tariff-china/682427/
Trump is fucking over the U.S. and Trumpswabs, but the Trumpswabs applaud it. Trumpswabs are willfully stupid.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)