The Trump Tax numbers are starting to come into focus

That certainly is the Trump and right-wing media narrative, but the numbers show that it hasn't worked.

The first time around, when Trump started handing out tariffs in 2018.

Trump’s First-Term Tariffs Crushed US Manufacturing | Cato at Liberty Blog

"year-to-year growth in manufacturing output fell steadily after September 2018 and was down nearly 4% by October 2019. Manufacturing employment began falling continually after August 2018, long before the COVID-19 scare of March 2020."

Now to 2025:

US factory headcount falling despite Trump's promised manufacturing boom | Reuters

"U.S. manufacturing jobs in December continued an eight-month skid that began last spring after President Donald Trump rolled out aggressive import taxes that he pledged would lead to a resurgence of blue-collar jobs by reshuffling world trade to favor U.S. workers."

The proof is in the pudding. Let's see if Trump can make manufacturing boom, I have my doubts.

Once again, I cite the Law of Comparative Advantage, which suggests that we should specialize in what we do best and use that comparative advantage to trade for what we do not do as well.

Every country doing that results in the optimal outcome for all. The rising tide lifts all boats.

A signal element of Trump's ghastly stupidity is that he thinks that the world economy is a zero-sum game. We can't win unless they lose, blah blah. He literally cannot conceive of mutual benefit.

We have a retarded baboon running, and ruining, our economy.

Brent, we did not miss the point you did.  During the campaign Trump  promised over and over again to lower prices on day one and not just by a little bit nor years later after his tariff scheme plays out. 

The promise was day one not some time in the unknown distant future. He over promised and didn’t even make an attempt to deliver.  Instead he raised prices on day one. 

Tariffs have never worked and they never will. In fact we are seeing that play out right now as manufacturing jobs are disappearing because companies aren’t rushing to build factories in the United States.

People are currently getting laid off in record numbers. People won’t  buy a $3,000 iPhone and these companies can simply not build that type of product and sell it at a price in sufficient quantity that will make it profitable to manufacture those type of goods in the US.

Trump has destroyed our economy and quite honestly Brent we will both be dead by the time it is fixed if ever. We went from the country that was number one in the world to a second rate has been country that nobody wants anything to do with. The world was our oyster and Trump pissed it all away. He did manage to make China greater than it ever has been,

Trump is not just stupid; he's uneducated. The US achieved its strength by being a trading nation. That's been how we roll for our entire existence.

Until now.

Trump thinks that trade is inherently a bad thing. He believes that everyone is trying to rip us off, which I suppose is to be expected, since during his entire career as a grifter, he tried to scam everyone he did business with. The latest estimate is that he scurried away from over $4 billion in unpaid bills and debts from 1990 to 2010.

The man's a crook and an idiot.

If the auto union negotiates a raise for its American workers, MAGA cries foul, claiming it will hurt the company and force it to raise prices. A $2 billion charge in tariffs? Eh, it's ok.

Ford hit with $2 billion tariff blow as automaker races to contain fallout | The Auto Wire

"On Dec. 23, the Trump administration informed Ford it could only apply a tariff-reduction measure on imported auto parts dating back to November, not May. That single decision effectively doubled Ford’s tariff burden to $2 billion in 2025. The company now expects to carry that same weight again this year. Two billion dollars is not a rounding error. It is a direct hit to earnings, planning and pricing."

Meanwhile Ford is losing $19B on ev cars

Ford has revealed their fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results, and they’re a doozy. While officials tried to sugar coat things, there’s no hiding an $8.2 billion net loss for the full year,

Ford’s Model e division reported a full-year EBIT loss of $4.8 billion.

Ford Motor on Monday said it would take a $19.5 billion charge as it refocuses on hybrids, slashes its electric-vehicle investments and discontinues the electric F-150 pickup truck.  Much of the $19.5 billion hit will be recorded in the current quarter, with the rest being spread out across the next two years, Ford said

EVs weighed heavily on the automaker last year as they booked a $10.7 billion special charge for “Model e Asset Impairment and EV Program Cancellations.” Another $1.2 billion was wasted on cancelled three-row EV

A business decision that is not going well vs a government forced tax that was not passed by congress.

One you can plan for the other, with the current lawmaking by tweet, you have no idea what's coming next.

The biden gang and Ca ev mandates caused this problem.  Now that the tax credits and mandates are going away, the auto manufacturers are stuck with the cars and the factories.

Oh you mean the laws and regulations that Biden was able to pass in several bills that worked their way through the House and Senate? That set timelines that bussineses could plan for? Then the BBB legislation gutted it and the companies had to pivot.

Gotcha!

I was commenting on tariffs by tweet causing an additional unexpected tax bill of $1 billion that Ford has to pay now.

Getting my 🍿 out.