Summary
Trump snapped at a reporter who asked how much economic pain he was willing to inflict amid plunging markets triggered by his new tariffs.
Speaking after a weekend at his Florida resort, Trump dismissed speculation he was trying to crash the market, claiming tariffs would bring in “$1 trillion” and spur U.S. manufacturing.
When asked about a pain threshold for Americans, he called the question “so stupid,” arguing economic “medicine” was necessary to reverse decades of “stupid leadership.”
He insisted the strategy would make the U.S. “solid and strong again.”
Haha. Trumps funny
“sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something”
Exactly, medicine exists to fix something. What Trump is doing is substance abuse.
Americans circa 2025 about to take their economic medicine
Donald doesn’t have to tolerate any pain. He’s a billionaire. Billionaire’s way of life will still be unbelievably fabulous. It’s us that suffer at their expense.
This rhetoric seems similar to that used by Milton Friedman and the Chicago school of economics. They applied ‘economic therapy’ to left-leaning economies in the late 1900s which involved rapid privatization of nationally owned industries. Negatively affected many otherwise healthy countries including England, Russia and Chilie.
The Shock Doctrine does a round robin of these events; highly recommended.
Project 2025 is about privatizing branches of government while citizens are too busy dealing with the fallout of economic collapse.
They’re seriously going to privatize the weather service and social security if we do not continue to take to the streets.
Russia was not healthy when it applied shock therapy. The Soviet Union was collapsing, massive political instability in Moscow, all sorts of countries moving out of the Russian sphere of influence, the first Chechen war started and so forth. It was fairly obvious that big decision had to be made, but unfortunatly Russia choose poorly.
Even if his tariffs do bring in $1 trillion, that’s not even half the loss his tariffs have cause in just 3 days.
He’s not tolerating squat when it comes to any pain, for ANY of his actions, least of all his tariff fuckery.
tRump always speaks in a clear, concise, fact based, evidence based, and in a verifiable manner. He uses proof such as “medicine,” “stupid,” “someone said,” “I heard,” “everyone is saying.” “Economic medicine,” what is that?
Absolutely, and what I like best about him is his trustworthiness and respect for women.
He’s also a genius businessman who will run our country like his businesses, which will be great and lead to widespread prosperity.
A special kind of genius that can bankrupt a casino multiple times. How do you fuck up a license to print money?
Trump will endure precisely zero economic pain since he is rich. He doesn’t have to go through anything. He sits in a literal ivory tower why would he feel bad about anything?
Everybody is thinking way, way too much into this.
If Trump would have to answer a question where he doesn’t know the answer, or would have to admit that people disagree with him, or he feels even mildly challenged, this is considered a personal attack on him. You are trying to get him to admit to not being 100% perfect 100% of the time. And he responds to that by lashing out like a small child, attacking you, making up childish names for you, and insulting you. This is how he has always responded.
This has nothing to do with his thoughts on economic policies or the effects of his tariffs. He doesn’t think far enough ahead to either know or care. This reporter had the audacity to challenge him, and Trump lashed out. That’s all. That’s how he always responds.
So true. You don’t have to dig deep into any of his responses when you criticize anything about him. He will lash out. He’s a child. That’s it.
I can’t understand how more people don’t understand this. There’s no depth to any of this. An immature, ignorant, narrow-minded idiot doing immature, ignorant, narrow-minded things. The media’s sane washing is to blame, I guess, if not the straight propaganda from right wing outlets. But at this point if you’re still giving the benefit of the doubt you’re part of the problem.
The only way I see the US becoming “solid and strong again”, is a revolution that results in a Constitution v2.0 that fixes many issues with the structure of government, voting, and setting rules regarding wealth. Otherwise, odds are that the US will splinter apart into several major bodies.
On the plus side of splintering, it means many conservatives would flee out of Blue States, and the Blue States get more people who believe in governance, science, democracy, and society. They would be far more stronger and influential than Red States in the long run. Blue States won’t have to play ball with stupid conservative ideas, such as non-medical vaccine exemptions, anti-migrant policies, and so forth.
A split would create North Korea 2.0
A split would create North and South Koreas. If we don’t split, I’m afraid we will only get North Korea 2.0
At least one revolution is already underway, but those responsible for the current change are wearing red hats. The neo-reactionary Butterfly Revolution.
Unfortunately, most Democratic Party politicians today are the real conservatives in the sense that they simply want to preserve the old system.
And there are people who identify as Democrats but are increasingly disillusioned, who want reform or revolution in the direction of a egalitarian, democratic society with strong social welfare systems geared toward equity (let’s hope they grow in number), not in the direction of the elitist, authoritarian, technofeudalist, rigid hierarchical society proposed by adherents of the Dark Enlightenment ideas. Such people could redirect the current Butterfly Revolution in the opposite direction and foment division among Republicans.
Until the red states run out of food and start eyeing the neighbouring blue states
Where do you think food comes from exactly? It’s not New York City or San Francisco. California has a good bit of farm country, but a lot of the rest of our food does come from “red” states.
except lots are paid by the government to grow food. that money is now gone.
So if you think the “red” food-producing states would stop producing food altogether without government money, then where would the “blue” states get food?
By the way, it is not money that grows food from the farmers’ fields. They are still able to produce crops without subsidies. They just might not be able to produce a surplus of crops to export to other states.
They can eyeball all they want, the red states are also the US’ welfare queens. They’re poor AF and would be bankrupt in a couple of years.
Plus the people that live in those states by and large aren’t capable of any kind of sustained physical activity
Trump bankrupted a casino, is anyone surprised he’s doing the same to America.
Wrong. WRONG!
It was more than one casino.1991: Trump Taj Mahal
1992: Trump Castle Hotel & Casino
1992: Trump Plaza Casino
1992: Trump Plaza Hotel (not a casino, ‘just’ a hotel.)
2004: Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts
2009: Trump Entertainment Resorts (casino holding company)There are numerous other businesses that failed spectacularly, too.
Then there are the failed businesses that were neverbsupposed to succeed because they were fraud from the inception, like Trump University. They announced it and promoted it, and signed up students, who took out student loans ffrom the government and sent them to thebadmissions department.
Then it turned out that they never bought/ rented a single building, hired no teachers, never created a curriculum, etc. They didn’t do one thing to create a school except sign up students and take their student loan money. It didn’t go bankrupt, it never existed, but they sold it anyway.
Trump Vodka was a success UNTIL he came out as a non-drinker. Tanked his business.
Its time to revive Trump Steaks with our “beautiful beef.”
… Even… if Trump… can bring in $1 trillion… somehow…
US stock markets have wiped out $ 9 trillion in market cap since Trump became President.
… So uh. Yeah.
1 - 9 is -8, Don.
Great plan.
That $1 trillion he’s claiming also comes from the pockets of Americans, so it’s more like - 1 - 9 = - 10.
I am trying to give him a delusional level of benefit of thr doubt in thinking that some fucking how these tariffs actually result in 1 trillion in new US manufacturing industries/investments.
Even by his own… “”““logic””“” … his plan makes no fucking sense.
Of course yes, in reality… it makes even less sense, because you don’t get new manufacturing in a very high cost of living country without extremely well thought out industrial policy, subsidies, ways to attract needed talent, and investment, and … you get it.
This man hasn’t deserved the benefit of the doubt for at least 40 years
Yep, but unfortunately it’s not going to matter how much manufacturing relocates to the US. The rest of the world is now starting to boycot US products en masse. Some countries are even banning investment into the US. And travel to the US is declining. So their trade deficit is going to get far worse.
On top of that, there was news yesterday that Trump removed the ban on the use of "forever chemicals, " like PFAS. So that’ll mean some US products won’t be allowed to be imported into other countries.
Yep. Im a US citizen, we are so beyond fucked it is actually funny, at least a third of the population are in a hardcore fascist cult of personality, our media is dominated by idiots gargling the balls of even more powerful and even more stupid idiots.
If anyone wants to do a sham marriage, I’d love to be able to leave.
I got basically crippled in an assault and now live off of SSDI. If Soc Security gets gutted further… I’m fucked, on the streets homeless, in a wheelchair.
I mean he covers that in the article. He straight says the tariffs will bring in money and then the new manufacturing will bring in more on top of that:
Those tariffs next year will make us $1 trillion, in addition to the $1 trillion thousands of companies are going to relocate back into the United States,
I still genuinely am not sure if he legitimately understands tariffs. Like, surely he knows they are paid by the importer. He has to right? But time and time and time again he says that other countries will pay the money. I’m assuming he’s just lying but I can’t even tell anymore.
Regardless this $1 trillion he’s claiming are absolutely just a tax on Americans.
It’s like the wall, really. But so much bigger, as big as it is reshaping global trade. Like the wall, it will never become a reality, except in some specific parts of the border. Well, some specific parts of the USA economy will still work, the American consumer market is irreplaceable in some extent, for now.
I would think regular Americans are already being affected by this?
He is acting like there is basically perfectly inelastic demand for Americans to pay for imports and importers to pay the tariffs.
Elasticity is basically how demand changes in accordance with price.
Generally speaking, absolute necessities like food, water, housing… are less elastic than unneccesary luxuries.
… But… basically nothing is perfectly in elastic.
If anything was, the price could literally be either infinite, or totally free… and demand would not change.
Obviously that is nonsense. Even if you die without food, demand will drop if a meal costs a billion dollars.
Trump is acting like the US is so lucrative a market that… our volume of imports will be… the same… and … the importers just have infinite money to pay tariffs… and not do cost pass thru to consumers.
Even though every economist since the 1700s will tell you tariffs result in less imports, and higher prices for consumers.
He seems to genuinely think he is directly taxing other countries, when he is… just taxing American consumers and importers.
Its like when Elon got mad at advertisers leaving twitter and he threatened to sue them for… not buying his ad service.
These coddled corrupt criminal capitalists have gotten so used to just always getting their way… that they’ve broken fundamental underlying concepts of how the ‘free market’ works.
Their worldviews are internally inconsistent and do not make sense, they hold fundamentally contradictory ideas simultaneously, and when people point this out, they flail and removed and moan and insult like the petulant spoiled brats they are, because facing the contradiction, resolving the cognitive dissonance would cause ego death… which is the same as suicide for a megalomaniacal narcissist.
For them, it is literally:
I can’t be wrong.
Ergo, everyone else is.
Even though every economist since the 1700s will tell you tariffs result in less imports, and higher prices for consumers.
That’s the plan:
https://unherd.com/2025/02/why-trumps-tariffs-are-a-masterplan/
Varoufakis is wrong.
Central to this new global order (Trump’s plan) would be a cheaper dollar that remains the world’s reserve currency — this would lower US long-term borrowing rates even more.
What Trump is doing will result in a cheaper dollar.
It was also destroy the USD as the world’s reserve currency.
wall of text further explanation so as not to clutter the thread
The USD has been the reserve currency because:
Huge, growing, stable economy.
Low debt to GDP ratio.
Very, very willing to cooperate with international trade deals.
Powerful military that can enforce its will as a hegemon.
Many deals with many oil producing countries who agree to only sell their exported oil via USD.
… all of these except the last are as seen in statistical comparison to other countries. Its all about comparative advantages.
Not sure if you haven’t noticed, but all of those are now rapidly crumbling, after a last 2 decades of slower, more incremental decline.
But ultimately, all of those things could be smoothed over by a reasonable presentation of trustworthiness and reliability generally.
Trump has utterly destroyed all of that now.
…
If Varoufakis were citing some kind of Project 2025 masterplan for this, I’d be more inclined to believe his read on the situation here is at least Trump’s plan.
But even then, it still won’t work as he describes.
Trump is acting with unimaginable hubris, his actions will destroy the USD as a world reserve currency, rapidly accelerate other countries looking for regional or possibly international alternatives, and as a result, less people will need to use dollars for trade, there will thus be less demand for US debt.
Less demand means we have to offer higher yields, higher interest rates on our debt, as the us dollar weakening means the real price of debt goes down.
Varoufakis may be correct in that this is what Trump will try to do, but I see no evidence that… the plan has actually been thought out that far by any actual administration or adjacent thinkers.
Beyond that, this plan won’t work.
We are acting like a rogue nation doing economkc terrorism to literally the whole world… other than basically Russia and Israel.
China, Japan and South Korea have recently entered into a pact, an agreement, to coordinate their responses of retaliatory tariffs.
Please take a moment to appreciate how insane that is.
The past … since ww2, SK and JPN have firmly been in the US’s sphere of economic influence and military collaboration.
They just fucking noped out of that the economic part of that and made a pact with China.
Japan is now rapidly trying to militarize and there are even talks of starting their own nuclear program.
Please, again, appreciate how fucking insane it is that the most anti nuclear weapons country on Earth is now maybe rethinking that.
Most other world leaders are not stupid. They know Trump will try to do piecemeal, one on on negotiations.
They are already forming into blocs to resist this tactic.
There’s talk of Canada joining or at least much more seriously integrating with the EU.
NATO is now basically defunct in all but paper only, the EU is finally ‘shouldering its burden of defense costs’, but uh, they’re working on an EU Army, that doesn’t involve the US, after Trump repeatedly threatens to acquire Greenland, and has totally betrayed Ukraine.
The EU is also rapidly pivoting away from being reliant on or using US software solutions.
These actual adults in the room have actual plans to deal with the US, and they have been enacted astonishingly rapidly given how comprehensive they are.
… The rest of the world does not need us anywhere near as much as Trump does, as much as Varoufakis estimates Trump thinks they do.
This article has been posted by me several times. You are only the second person who notices. The US cannot have it all. I think Varoufakis just doesn’t want to be the one who delivers the message. He must have known better.
I don’t fully agree with your outlook. The companies are not massively objecting. I think the concept has already been discussed by key people, in the US and internationally. Like Japan is prepared to build a nuclear bomb and Britain was prepared for Brexit, the big companies are prepared for decoupling from China.
What’s the minus of 30 and 20?
Uh, it’s 80, Frito. It’s $80 billion.
Well, it is a stupid question. A real journalist would ask how much more pain he’s willing to let the American people tolerate for his poorly disguised reverse pump and dump scheme
