What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[Razgovory]

I really wonder if he knows how Tariffs actually work.  I can't tell if he's running a con or is in fact this stupid.

[Grey Fox]

Chatter on Quebec social media space is that we should cut the electricity exports or heavily tax it.

[Zanza]

I really wonder if he knows how Tariffs actually work.  I can't tell if he's running a con or is in fact this stupid.

The biggest import from Canada is oil and he has a domestic oil drilling agenda and several backers from the industry. Second biggest from Canada and biggest from Mexico is cars, which helps his buddy Musk to compete and hurts the Detroit three and the Japanese and German companies invested there.

[Josquius]

Just looks so bizare to see Canada included in this priority shit list.

[HVC]

Just looks so bizare to see Canada included in this priority shit list.

His daughter is attracted to our PM.

[jimmy olsen]

I really wonder if he knows how Tariffs actually work.  I can't tell if he's running a con or is in fact this stupid.

He has been consistent on this since 2015. He does not understand how tariffs work and despite countless politicians, economists and finance guys making the attempt, he cannot be made to understand them.

[Valmy]

There goes 35% of my division business.

Yes but take heart. Trump is a man who talks much and does little. So who knows what he might actually do?

But he can just do this with a sign of the pen, so I'm pretty sure it will happen.

We'll see. He has a history of saying he is going to do something and then discovering it is unpopular and then instantly reversing course.

But that was back in 2017-2021, so things might be very different this time I acknowledge.

[jimmy olsen]

There goes 35% of my division business.

Yes but take heart. Trump is a man who talks much and does little. So who knows what he might actually do?

But he can just do this with a sign of the pen, so I'm pretty sure it will happen.

We'll see. He has a history of saying he is going to do something and then discovering it is unpopular and then instantly reversing course.

But that was back in 2017-2021, so things might be very different this time I acknowledge.

I mean, if the market really tanks before hand, maybe I could see him pulling back... but he's been promising this for years. Hard to see him going back on it.

[Syt]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg7y52n411o

Trump vows day-one tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China

Donald Trump says he will hit China, Mexico and Canada with new tariffs on day one of his presidency, in an effort to force them to crack down on illegal immigration and drug smuggling into the US.

The president-elect said that immediately after his inauguration on 20 January he will sign an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on all goods coming from Mexico and Canada.

He also said an additional 10% tariff will be levied on China until the government there blocks smuggling of the synthetic opioid fentanyl from the country.

If Trump follows through with the threats it will mark a major escalation in tensions with America's three biggest trading partners.

The tariffs on Mexico and Canada will remain in place until the two countries clamp down on drugs, particularly fentanyl, and migrants illegally crossing the border, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

"Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem," he said.

"It is time for them to pay a very big price!"

In a separate post, Trump attacked Beijing for failing to follow through on promises he said Chinese officials made to carry out the death penalty for people caught dealing fentanyl.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington told the BBC "the idea of China knowingly allowing fentanyl precursors to flow into the United States runs completely counter to facts and reality".

"China believes that China-US economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial in nature. No one will win a trade war or a tariff war," he added.

The Biden administration has been calling on Beijing to do more to stop the production of ingredients used in fentanyl, which Washington estimates killed almost 75,000 Americans last year.

During his election campaign, Trump threatened Mexico and China with tariffs of up to 100%, if he deemed them necessary, much higher than those he put in place during his first term in office.

Trump has also said he will end China's most-favoured-nation trading status with the US - the most advantageous terms Washington offers on tariffs and other restrictions.

Tariffs are a central part of Trump's economic vision - he sees them as a way of growing the US economy, protecting jobs and raising tax revenue.

He has previously claimed that these taxes are "not going to be a cost to you, it's a cost to another country".

This is almost universally regarded by economists as misleading.

"It's clearly consistent with his promise that he made during the campaign to utilise tariffs as a weapon to accomplish many of his policy initiatives," Stephen Roach, Senior Fellow at the Paul Tsai China Center of Yale Law School told the BBC's Business Today programme.

Trump's pick for Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, has previously suggested that the president-elect's threats to impose major tariff hikes were part of his negotiating strategy.

"My general view is that at the end of the day, he's a free trader," Bessent said of Trump in an interview with the Financial Times before he was nominated for the role.

"It's escalate to de-escalate."

It comes as the Chinese economy is in a significantly more vulnerable position than it was during the previous Trump presidency.

The country has been struggling with a number of serious issues, including an ongoing property market crisis, weak domestic demand and growing local government debt.

The new tariffs appear to break the terms of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on trade.

The deal, which Trump signed into law, took effect in 2020. It continued a largely duty-free trading relationship between the three neighbouring countries.

After Trump made his tariff threat, he discussed trade and border security with Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, according to the Reuters news agency.

Mexico's finance ministry said: "Mexico is the United States' top trade partner, and the USMCA provides a framework of certainty for national and international investors."

[Crazy_Ivan80]

I really wonder if he knows how Tariffs actually work.  I can't tell if he's running a con or is in fact this stupid.

Enough vids on the Tube of magas that don't know, but I'm sure you can make that of the non-magas too

[Norgy]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg7y52n411o

Trump vows day-one tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China

     sum up what I think.

I know conservatives long for the past, but this is just insanity. WE ARE NOT IN THE 19TH CENTURY. And hopefully posturing.

[Tamas]

I am half wishing he does it. Let him crash the economy. The people will rise and burn the Democrats on a stake for it.

[grumbler]

Just that - once you've been confirmed by the Senate for one position, you do not need to be confirmed by the Senate if you move to another position that also requires Senate approval.

Now most of the time that's completely uncontroversial.  The Deputy Attorney-General is a position that needs Senate confirmation.  But, if later on the AG retires, the Deputy AG can move into the more senior spot without any fuss - and without a new confirmation hearing.

But there's some room for trickery here.  Trump could appoint someone grossly unqualified, but to a lower position, and the Senate just kind of gives up (aka flooding the zone with shit) and confirms the position.  Trump could then later appoint the person to a much more important position without Senate confirmation - because they've already been Senate-confirmed.

I think that you are confusing Senate confirmation with Senate confirmation hearings.  The Senate must confirm appointments, whether they have confirmed the candidate previously for a position or not.  What they can forgo in the case of the previously-confirmed appointee is the public confirmation hearing.

For instance, here is the Senate confirmation ticker for  Kevin G. Ritz to be promoted from US Attorney's for the Western District of Tennessee to the Sixth Circuit Court.  He'd been Senate-confirmed in 2022 for the USA office, but still needed to be confirm as a Circuit Court judge.  As you can see, though, all the hearing he had was a brief one with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

If your position were correct, then Trump could appoint anyone who'd been previously confirmed in his previous administration, for any position whatsoever, to any new administration position without Senate confirmation.

[Josephus]

Does Canada really supply that much fentanyl to the USA?

I think Canada should impose a 20 per cent tariff on all US imports until America stops sending guns across the border.

[Norgy]

Just put a tariff on the MSL. That will show them!