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Trump and His Lackeys Try to Spin His Tariff Scam [1]
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Date: 2025-07-28
Been thinking about the tRump trade “deals” with Japan and now Europe and few things hit me. Not surprisingly, the terms are a lot less favorable than dear leader lets on once you looks at the details. Of course our know nothing “president” and his lackeys will try to spin it a “Yuge” win for us (and of course that means him). But as I stated, lets consider the details.
Japan first: tariffs will be 15% on pretty much all goods, down from at least 25% before the deal, though I think steel and aluminum are still 20%. And Japan will “invest” $550B in the US. Sounds great, right?
Well 15% is lower than the planned 25% (or was it 24%?) announced earlier this year, but under Biden the effective rate was only 2%. A massive increase no matter how you slice it.
As for the investment piece, what does Japan say? In a nutshell, only 1-2% will be real investment (I bet 1% will be closer) and the rest will be loans and loan guarantees. So Japanese banks will reap the interest rate profits and fees from the guarantees, while the US gets bupkus.
As far as the 15% tariff on cars, US manufacturers are pissed off because they still are paying 25% on parts imported from Canada and Mexico as well as 50% on imported steel and aluminum they use in US manufacturing. They are NOT cool with this situation, despite what that jerk Lutnick is spouting.
I suspect the recently announced EU deal will look similar to the Japan one, so again, all spin, no great benefit to the US.
Oh, and Lutnick is giddy over a projected $1T the tariffs will produce for the US Treasury. Al Jazeera calculates the INCREASE in tariff revenue at ca. $250B per year, so way less than $800B-$1T per year Lutnick regurgitates.
And where does Lutnick think that $1T comes from? Foreign countries? Idiot. It comes from US importers and manufacturers, or from US consumers if those costs are passed along. Essentially this is one fucking huge tax increase on US companies and the public. At $T per annum this actually dwarfs the Big Ugly Bill tax relief ($4.5T over a decade) with tariff costs being allocated to the general public while the rich friends of tRump, Lutnick and others laugh all the way to their offshore tax havens.
What a fricking scam.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/7/28/2335606/-Trump-and-His-Lackeys-Try-to-Been-thinking-about-the-tRump-trade-deals-with-JaSpin-His-Tariff-Scam
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