Summary

Donald Trump abruptly reversed his tariff policy Wednesday, announcing a return to a 10% baseline tariff on most countries and a steep 125% rate on China.

His administration appeared blindsided, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unable to explain the move and press secretary Karoline Leavitt resorting to combative rhetoric.

The shift likely responds to mounting criticism from conservative allies and market instability marked by a debt sell-off.

Despite confusion and lack of clarity, officials tried to play up Trump’s unpredictability as strategic leverage rather than a sign of disarray.

  • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    135
    ·
    edit-2
    5 days ago

    It couldn’t be any more blatant. Trump himself blasted out the insider trading info 3hrs before announcing the tariff reversal:

    3hr later:

    • jonne@infosec.pub
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      63
      ·
      5 days ago

      Good thing the Supreme Court decided that it’s an official act which is totally cool and legal.

    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      50
      ·
      edit-2
      5 days ago

      100%. It’s been obvious from the start. This is probably the top secret part of project 2025 that is alluded to exist, but hasn’t been documented anywhere.

      4 years of these pump and dumps will kill off most small businesses, while enabling the nazi party and preferred oligarchs (including Putin) to consolidate and own the lions share of the market; stealing trillions from global investors and retirement funds, and attaining voting rights to control most corporations. DOGE’s purpose was to eliminate and disrupt every institutions ability to document and enforce these crimes.

      • newfie@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        4 days ago

        Agreed that it’s insider trading.

        But how will this contribute to monopolization of the corporate sector and harm small/medium businesses? Why would all of this increase their corporate control of other large corporations?

        I’m not saying that isn’t their goal, because it clearly is. But I don’t see how pump and dumps necessarily help them achieve that. Especially now that everyone with a brain knows this is what they’re going to keep doing

    • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      4 days ago

      These Countries have not retaliated in any way

      They very much have. China has just become a convenient “out group” for Trump to demonize.

      • barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        4 days ago

        The response will take a long time to come into focus, but make no mistake, this incident will do long-term damage to America’s standing in the world. No other country trusts us about anything any more.

        Many in our country are stupid enough to delude themselves about HitlerPig, but foreign governments aren’t buying it one bit. They have intelligence agencies, too, and they know that he is not only an unrepentant and even enthusiastic traitor to his own country, he is a traitor to the entire Democratic Free World.

        The worse he gets, the less the rest of the world will want to work with our government in any way. Eventually, we are likely to get hit with crippling international sanctions.

        But he’ll be using all of it to enrich himself and his friends, so he won’t care at all.

        • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          4 days ago

          Of course. He didn’t even say he’s cancelling the tariffs, this is a “pause”, so other countries are still going to continue with their plans to make alternative trade agreements outside of the US.

    • Serinus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      16
      ·
      5 days ago

      “Great time to buy” could just as easily be “plz make stock market go up”. You can’t really make a decision based on that statement.

        • Serinus@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          4 days ago

          Well, you and I can’t. You’d need a previous heads up that it’s market manipulation vs begging.

      • _stranger_@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        4 days ago

        “funding secured” bought musk a ton of trouble. This is no different, other than there will be no enforcement of the clear precedent.