WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Friday added the 27 countries that make up the European Union to the list of trade partners he’s threatening with tariffs — unless the group takes steps to import more U.S. goods.
“I told the European Union that they must make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large scale purchase of our oil and gas,” Trump posted shortly after 1 a.m. on social media. “Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way!!!”
He has found an efficient way to damage every economy and the planet at the same time.
Interestingly enough, his tariffs are slowly expanding to cover everyone that Putin/Russia considers an enemy, and his original plan for major tariffs on China are conveniently no longer mentioned. I’m sure there’s absolutely zero correlation of course.
If we had anymore evidence for Trump’s sphincter hugging Putin’s wrist it would be lost in the mountains of that which already exists.
It’s like looking for a needle in a needlestack.
Any tariffs contribute to inflation, but tariffs on China will do this to the greatest visible degree possible. It’s why he backed down on that.
He is an efficient expert… in demolition. We should make a top 10 list. Including Putin, Bashar-Al-Assad, Musk and others.
Edi: sorry, just realised that Putin and Al-Assad fall in another special category.
OK. The rest of the world can forget the US for the next 4 years. We’ll see you guys in 2029 if there’s anything left.
Isn’t the US leading the world in AI? How else will the world access chatbots that make confidently make shit up?
They even made one a president!
“Hello America this is John Henry Eden”
Like we did before: We talk with Etonians.
Hahahaha that’s golden
Isn’t the US leading the world in AI?
Yes and no… You just don’t hear about the Chinese ones as much but there’s some that are up there with openai and Google, and there’s a very real concern that Trump’s policies will allow/encourage the global adoption of Chinese ai like Alibaba and Tencent’s ones. There was a whole report recently about the potential effect a popular Chinese ai would have due to it being able to manipulate facts and history, and people just not questioning it
Yeah just aim Ai at climate change and solve it for everybody, thanks.
Oh, that isn’t an option? Guess we’re still fucked, then.
Interesting he’s had the idea to force the world to become less dependent on trade with the US
Kinda thought of all things he wouldn’t want to risk reducing the value of the dollar like that
Edit: won’t this also make the prospect of moving more global businesses abroad more appealing?
Removing USA from my travel list
Me in 2016:
hope everyone enjoys argentina style 200% inflation
That’s unfortunately not gonna happen since the US has the world reserve currency but it looks like he’s doing his best to change that
The times when John Connally could tell European diplomats “The dollar is our currency, but your problem” are already nearly gone. The world’s currency reserves are currently at 59% US dollars, down from the year 2000’s 73%.
Sadly cannot expect it to change bit it would really be funny if the reserve currency changed to something else like the € for example.
We can expect it to change actually. We’ve known for decades that we’re entering another multi polar era. One of the biggest criticisms of GOP presidents since Reagan is their cavalier attitude to this fact. They keep trying to strong arm other countries like there’s no alternatives and every time they do that they generate political will to move away from the US in other countries.
Yeah, euro is a good candidate, inflation target is 2% and is pretty stable and widely accepted. The Mercosur deal might tip the scales pretty heavily towards the euro since Latin America uses mostly USD for international transactions.
The BRICS currency would also be a strong candidate if that ever happens.
That’s what he wants, he’s all about the bitcoin and his own versions of it.
Great. In the end, Europe and China are even closer… Voting for idiots has consequences.
Yes, it seems that if he has his way, the whole world will have to unite against the USA.
I hate how this race to the bottom makes China look better and better each year. Fucking China! Good job assholes! The US is getting dangerously close to becoming just as bad… Well, except for the about to be fucking poor like Russia part.
he’s just going full Oprah with these things isn’t he?
did someone tell him it’s a game like duck duck goose?
tariff. tariff. tariff. tariff. tariff. tariff.
Donald, you can’t give everyone tariffs!
I wish media would call them what they are. Taxes. Trump wants to tax the American people. He is pro taxes, he wants more and more and more of them. But he wants to make sure they hit the lower and middle class, so he gives tax breaks to the rich, and then passes the cost down.
I’d say “dew it”!
Let’s see if your top-secret-paperwork dumpsite mar-a-lago can pay for it’s flowers and Gouda cheese selections… And how long 'till it will serve domestic boxed Florida Swamp wine and “bubbles” since Italy or France won’t ship anymore.
In his mind it’s a trade deficit that the EU refuses to buy the US’ chlorine drowned chickens, or make their own coca cola without corn syrup…
So, not to detract from your overall point, but apparently there’s functionally no difference between soda sweetened with sugar and corn syrup. The reason why is after a month or so of sitting on the shelf the acidity of a carbonated drink has converted all the sucrose (table sugar) into a 50/50 mix of glucose and fructose. Corn syrup is a 45/55 mix of glucose and fructose.
So while a corn syrup sweetened coke would have ~5% more fructose than one sweetened by sugar, the difference is so minuscule as to be effectively identical. In other contexts (such as in baked goods, candies, or non-carbonated drinks) there is a difference between using sugar and corn syrup, it’s just in the specific case of carbonated drinks that it doesn’t matter.
Aha, thanks, I was not aware it made just a neglectable difference in sodas.
Other than, you know, taste. People can tell the difference in blind taste tests. And most people prefer the sugar sweetened version. It’s just that in the US the corn lobby will not give you the option to choose anything else.
I brought US coke to Europe earlier this year specifically to test this. I couldn’t taste the difference, my wife got it correct but said it was really close even taking alternate sips after one another. If there is a difference, it is really minuscule.
You actually can’t taste a difference. The taste tests are between so called Mexican coke and US coke, but it’s not apples to apples. Mexican coke is a different formula which is why it tastes different, it’s not just corn syrup replaced with sugar. For instance Mexican coke has less than half the sodium of US coke. People prefer the Mexican formula, not the sugar.
Edit: for comparison here’s the nutrition label of Mexican coke and US coke. Notice the sodium and carbohydrate quantities. The formulas are different, it’s like comparing Sprite and Sierra Mist, they’re a similar flavor but ultimately different.
You can also just watch this: https://youtu.be/NY66qpMFOYo
It explains all of this and debunks every possible argument for why sugar might be better than corn syrup in soda.
Edit 2: For those downvoting you do realize that doesn’t change reality right? You’re still wrong and there is no difference between a soda sweetened with sugar and one sweetened with corn syrup (no not even taste). If you have two sodas that are completely identical except one is sweetened with sugar and one with corn syrup if it’s been more than a month since they were made they are chemically identical, there will be no actual sugar left in the one made with sugar. They will taste identical, even in a blind taste test. Mexican Coke is not US Coke with the corn syrup replaced! It’s a different soda entirely.
Big corn would never lie. Line goes up.
I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make. None of this is based on anything claimed by the corn industry but rather on a series of studies that were done (technically one paper followed by a paper by a different group refuting that paper due to it overlooking an important detail).
For a pretty good explanation of all of this check this video out: https://youtu.be/NY66qpMFOYo
No need to read, I am a good American and will consume my daily quota of 40 servings of grains.
“Did you just said we have to build more solar power and fuck you?”
Probably influenced by the enormous amount of money oil barons spent on him, of which they almost certainly did with an expectation of return on investment.
His desire to “Drill baby drill!” and relax restrictions on oil drilling—including drilling into a wilderness reserve previously uninterrupted by man—and his apparent distaste for EVs and green energy, makes it pretty obvious whose hand has firmly lodged itself right up his arsehole.
The man needs oil to sell to please his owners, and belligerently trying to force the EU to increase their purchases is just another one of his hare-brained schemes.
He seems to think that a trade deficit means that the US is losing money. That’s obviously as incorrect as the idea that tariffs are paid by the country they are enacted on, rather than the country that is enacting them, but if he really does believe both of those things, his behavior makes some sense.
Don’t they risk oversupply and pushing the price down if they start up even more drilling?
That’s why he’s trying to force an increase in demand
What route does he have to do that?
The man needs oil to sell to please his owners, and belligerently trying to force the EU to increase their purchases is just another one of his hare-brained schemes.
He really is a lemon.
Can someone just declare war on us already and end your suffering
Texas is really close everytime someone tries to give minorities their rights back.
Just throw U.S. on that list while you’re at it why not
I can’t wait until he learns a new word.
Putin trained the fucker well. First he poisons relationships with neighbors, then the EU. Full ongoing division tactics. Straight out of the brexit cookbook. The only thing that’s missing now is for him to pompously declare independence from the EU or smth.
Mr Cheetos has an interesting view on free market.
@ America, if you want us to invade and establish a real democracy, just call us…
Best regards, The Germans
SOS
Those in glass houses shouldn’t be throwing bricks labeled AfD lol
The Germans, circa '40 FTFY
