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Trump's latest article on tariffs starts off with the definition of insanity [1]

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Date: 2025-04-13

These are the first words of Trump's article: The State of Play: Why Trump's Tariffs are Necessary:

"It's cliché, yet true --- the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and expecting a different result."

The irony of using the saying is lost on Trump. He is repeating what McKinley did and what the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act proved. Blanket tariffs don't work at all and that's exactly what Trump is repeating. It is the definition of insanity.

"The trade policies of the last several decades have failed this nation, it's workers, and our communities."

Trade policies are what Trump thinks are insane. Seems to me, Trump was handed the best economy the world has ever seen, especially after the Covid crisis. But Trump had ruined the economy even before Covid. People just remember his first two years when he was handed a good economy by Obama, and then sent it downhill. Decades isn't true either, not after you go back to Clinton where he actually balanced the budget.

Then he goes on about the trade deficit and how this is ruining America.

"Since 1990, manufacturing employment has decreased by 59% in New York and decreased by 35% in Ohio."

That could be true. I'm not going to dispute it. It's just not facing the reality that we stopped making a lot of goods in the United States because it was a lot cheaper for the consumer to buy goods manufactured in countries like China. Hence a trade deficit as well. Tariffs are not going to bring back manufacturing. It's just going to make everything more expensive. All the things you need to do to make manufacturing possible just went up in price.

"The loss of those jobs killed innocent Americans and destroyed towns. Multiple studies show the loss of jobs due to bad trade deals led to an increase in drug overdoses."

That, I think, is stretching things a bit far. If people don't have a job, they might be depressed and start using illegal drugs. But to blame it on bad trade deals is ridiculous. Saying bad trade deals killed Americans is also ridiculous.

"However, liberal commentators have lost interest in fixing this problem. In fact, they are offended at the suggestion that manufacturing should return to America."

Well, Biden did pass the CHIPS Act to bring back semiconductor manufacturing to the United States. What did Trump do? He basically just canceled it. Cost cutting measures are the excuse. Biden doing it is the real reason.

Trump brings up the tariffs he specifically put on lumber from Canada. So, now, we not only get more expensive lumber, but it costs more to produce it in the United States, and we lose forests that are sucking up carbon dioxide. Trump doesn't believe in climate change, so that doesn't make any difference to him. Yes, lumber and paper products have their own lands, but that doesn't supply all the needs. Growing trees takes time. We'd be better off growing hemp for most paper products.

"The loss of American industry means we struggle to build ships, medicine and other essential goods. This is a national security emergency."

Still another national security emergency. He keeps making them up one after another to justify his ridiculous policies. He keeps proving the definition of insanity every day. And we don't "build" medicine. It's created by scientists. And you just got rid of all those grants that make that possible. What are we going to do, make aspirin? We do need to have a ship building industry. But no one has figured out how to do it here for a reasonable cost. Especially our Navy ships.

Then he lists off a series of companies that are either planning to build in America or just considering it. He starts off with a bicycle frame company. Sure, Donald, that's going to change the face of manufacturing in America. The only ones of import, double meaning, are Apple, Nvidia, and TMSC. We have no idea, and neither do they, if this is going to happen. Those announcements were before the tariffs. They were also dependent on the CHIPS Act. Didn't you just forget Joe Biden's part in your list of accomplishments?

There are only a handful of companies that say they are going to move manufacturing from Mexico or Canada to the USA.

Everything else are just aspirations. The tariffs are more likely to cause a shrinking in company operations, not an increase in manufacturing in the US. If they cut down their manufacturing in other countries, their business will shrink and there is no point in manufacturing in the United States at all. You have to have the profits elsewhere to have foreign companies invest here, and that just got reduced dramatically.

Trump just keeps making things up out of thin air to justify his ignorant policies.

We still have the 10% tariff on anything coming into the country and the 145% Tariff on China.

It's been proven time and time again that the intention of tariffs are good, but they just don't work the way they're intended to. They must be carefully thought out first, and that obviously hasn't happened with Trump.

So, yes, Donald, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. So why are you doing tariffs?

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/13/2316235/-Trump-s-latest-article-on-tariffs-starts-off-with-the-definition-of-insanity?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

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