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The entire tariff Executive Order is based on bogus numbers and a fake expert economist [1]

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Date: 2025-04-05

Okay, if you listened to or watched any of the Rose Garden debacle signing of tariffs on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2025, you may have been wondering just how in the heck he came up with these tariff percentages.

Welp, first, here is the Trump administration explanation for the varying percentages--let's do just one. How about Indonesia?

Follow this illogical math carefully:

Indonesia: We have a trade deficit with them of 17.8 billion and their exports to us are at ~28 billion.

So, we are going to divide 17.8 B by 28 B, and you will get almost .64.............hence, the tariff Indonesia charges us is 64%. This is not true. It is a lie.

And yes, I know. This is significantly silly math as there are no actual tariffs calculated this way--not by any country.

On top of this silliness, Indonesia does not impose that 64% tariff on us to start with---but never one to let the truth get in the way of the lies, Trump declared that we are halving this made-up 64% tariff and charging them 32% because we are being nicer to them than are to us. Again, super silly explanation with no logical, explainable mathematical basis for any of it.

Here's what Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton and then later, he worked in the White House for Barack Obama, had to say about this tariff “stuff.” And, as he is an economist I'd take to the bank what he said here in a tweet (oops, an X), and put on screen by Rachel Maddow last night:

..............."Then, these computed reciprocal tariffs" have been calculated "without using any tariff data."

He would go on to say,

"This is to economy what creationism is to biology, astrology is to astronomy, or RFK's thoughts are to vaccine science."

To add to this craziness, here is a list of several countries and the tariff Trump is saying each country charges us and next to that bogus tariff, the actual tariff. When I saw this my head exploded.

Here you go:*

Actual tariff But White House says this is what they charge us

Vietnam 5.1% 90%

Taiwan 1.7% 64%

Switzerland 1.7% 61%

Indonesia 5.3% 64%

Japan 1.9% 46%

Cambodia 7.1% 97%

Israel 3.6% 33%

Singapore 0% 10%

*This list of countries and their tariffs was from a whiteboard Ben Meiselas held up the other day on his YouTube channel, Meidas Touch.

It is long past time when the quiet part is shouted out loud by all media, all folks in positions of power, and yep, that means you Republicans too. This guy is around the bend nuts. And that's not hyperbole. He believes this stuff he spouts even when he is shown evidence to the contrary.

And in case you've been wondering, as I have, where in the world he got the idea that tariffs were the best thing since sliced bread? Never mind had he taken the time to read up on the history he'd have learned that they were in fact disastrous for our country, particularly The Smoot Hawley Tariffs leveled in 1930. According to both economists and historians literally across the ideological spectrum, they were largely responsible for driving us deeper and faster into the Great Depression.

Again, hold onto your hat. The idea that they were great came from his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, whom he had tasked with finding some "hook" to use to win on the economy in his 2016 presidential run. The genius Kushner, tongue-in-cheek, searched for books by economists. On Amazon. And came up with this one, by Peter Navarro: Death by China.

Navarro is to be polite, a wanna-be economist with a penchant for shall we say, either lying or stretching the truth.

Oh, and the expert Navarro says influenced him that tariffs were the absolute right way to go? A guy named Ron Vara. And this is what he told Trump. He had a terrific expert. Top notch. The best.

The problem? There is no Ron Vara. This is simply as Rachel Maddow explained, an anagram of Navarro.

Crazy math based on nothing, lies about actual tariffs, the influence of a guy who is himself around the bend and makes up a fake expert when in fact he is the "expert." What could possibly go wrong?

Oh wait, the stock market is tanking. Our allies think we suck and are now telling us they are going to go it alone. The American people are going to get it in the financial neck to the tune of thousands of dollars annually. We are likely headed not merely to a recession but an actual depression. And all of it is based on the craziness I've laid out here.

Broken record here, but that's okay: Facts matter. Reality matters. Truth matters. And now I have a headache I have to get under control so I can head to the rally in my town by noon.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/5/2314736/-The-entire-tariff-Executive-Order-is-based-on-bogus-numbers-and-a-fake-expert-economist?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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