Trump Threatens China With Additional 50% Tariffs
Trump also reassured Americans over the tariffs: “The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!).”
President Donald Trump threatened China with an additional 50% tariff if the communist country did not drop its 34% retaliatory tariffs.
Trump wrote on Truth Social:
Yesterday, China issued Retaliatory Tariffs of 34%, on top of their already record setting Tariffs, Non-Monetary Tariffs, Illegal Subsidization of companies, and massive long term Currency Manipulation, despite my warning that any country that Retaliates against the U.S. by issuing additional Tariffs, above and beyond their already existing long term Tariff abuse of our Nation, will be immediately met with new and substantially higher Tariffs, over and above those initially set. Therefore, if China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th. Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated! Negotiations with other countries, which have also requested meetings, will begin taking place immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
This is my favorite post of his ever: “The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!”
Panican. I’m still laughing.
China’s 34% retaliatory tariffs would go into effect on April 10.
Trump also said that he has opened the door to negotiations:
Countries from all over the World are talking to us. Tough but fair parameters are being set. Spoke to the Japanese Prime Minister this morning. He is sending a top team to negotiate! They have treated the U.S. very poorly on Trade. They don’t take our cars, but we take MILLIONS of theirs. Likewise Agriculture, and many other “things.” It all has to change, but especially with CHINA!!!
I wrote this morning that the European Union offered Trump “zero-for-zero tariffs for industrial goods.”
Trump has not addressed the EU offer.
Earlier this morning, Trump described China as the “biggest abuser” when it comes to tariffs:
Oil prices are down, interest rates are down (the slow moving Fed should cut rates!), food prices are down, there is NO INFLATION, and the long time abused USA is bringing in Billions of Dollars a week from the abusing countries on Tariffs that are already in place. This is despite the fact that the biggest abuser of them all, China, whose markets are crashing, just raised its Tariffs by 34%, on top of its long term ridiculously high Tariffs (Plus!), not acknowledging my warning for abusing countries not to retaliate. They’ve made enough, for decades, taking advantage of the Good OL’ USA! Our past “leaders” are to blame for allowing this, and so much else, to happen to our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
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Comments
China needs us a lot more than we need China. As far as I am concerned we can shut off trade altogether.
The “a-ha” moment for me was when I was using a Chinese manufactured pipe wrench (purchased by my cheapskate boss) snapped in half. I fell backwards, hit my head and required stitches to close a gash in my scalp. That was it for me. I had tolerated low quality crsp imported from China for too long. Since then, if it’s made in China, I’m buying elsewhere.
I’m a guilty as charged Harbor Freight frequent shopper.
I have found a wide variety of quality at Harbor Freight. Some (mostly India and other not-China) is decent for the money.
If you buy the medium and high grade stuff at Harbor freight, you’re not buying Chinese junk you’re buying Taiwanese and most of it is decent quality. In fact, I make heavy use of power tools from Harbor Freight of all places because they’re Hercules line has proven to be very solid
How quickly we forget….
https://prosperousamerica.org/surge-in-pharmaceutical-imports-threatens-u-s-national-security-as-india-china-dominance-grows/
We had some limited opportunity to re-shore the manufacture of our most critical care meds immediately after COVID. Did we do that? No, we didn’t. In fact, we’re even more dependent on international suppliers than we were, to particularly include China. No less than 100 of our critical care meds (these are meds used in ERs/ICUs) don’t just come from China, they come from a single factory in China. If they were to cut that off, it would set hospitals back to the stone-age in a matter of months, maybe weeks.
Hopefully we can take advantage of the opportunity. Perhaps by signing purchase agreements for new US manufactured medical supplies/equipment and basic medicines. Use the market power of the VA health system and DoD health systems to do it. Add to that with Medicare/Medicaid requirements for US products. Incentives matter and so long as purchasing managers don’t have to worry about much beyond cheapest option they won’t.
Those are good ideas…which is why not one of them will be advanced by Congress.
My shopping these days starts with “Prefer Made in USA, will take anyplace but China”
What choice is there? I suppose you could buy Snap-On. I can’t afford that.
I recently got some brand name wrenches, Crescent brand. They are fine tools befitting the brand name. (Pipe style wrenches, not “crescent” wrenches with smooth jaws and the spiral that adjusts the bite.)
But they’re made in China. Everything is made in China. Good stuff, bad stuff and in between stuff.
50+ years ago my Dad used Craftsman tools. We couldn’t afford Snap-On, we bought Craftsman at Sears, pretty often they broke but they had a lifetime guarantee and we got replacements. That’s when everything, good and bad, was made in the USA.
Now of course the Craftsman brandname still exists too but it’s a sort of downscale Chinese brand.
You can find all quality of mid-grade tools that are not made in china. In fact, mostly the stuff made in China is the cheapest of the cheap and the tolerances are horrible and the quality is deplorable and I won’t touch that stuff. But it’s not too hard to find tools from techton, or Capri or also or several other companies that are selling tools made in Taiwan that are very decent quality. I would prefer American made, but I can’t afford most American made for the amount I use them. But, if you like pliers try channel lock, they’re mostly made in America
Snap-on has always been expensive. But, it’s become a parody. The prices they charge are just absurd. Even Matco is getting out of hand.
And yes, it’s a crying shame what happened to Craftsman.
I hate to say it but if they don’t jump start some of that manufacturing to local plants this will take too long to play out.
You can’t just jump start an assembly line. Facilities, permits, talent, work force acquisition – BEST case it would be 6 months for something pretty trivial like a blend door actuator that works the vents on your car.
For complex stuff- it’s longer. I hate industrial welfare, but if we are bringing manufacturing back, they better jump start this in lots of ways and more ways than just cash (which better come with accountability which the electric car people never had).
The traditional way to get that is a war. It worked for the US which ran manufacturing for WW1 and WW2. Vietnam didn’t provide nearly as much economic stimulus.
I went to NAPA to buy disc rotors for an old Ford truck. Counter guy asked me “Chinese made or American?” I said American. He came back a few minutes later and said “All I have in stock are made in China.”
All he had was Chinese because folks like you or me are saying “US made” or “made in not-China”.
PS: What’s really sad is how much OEM is either Chinese or so poorly made it doesn’t work.
Everything is made in China now. Some lower end mfg. is moving to Vietnam which is cheaper than China. That is a rough approximation but generally true.
We need a radical overhaul of the economy and ideology. If we were a producing nation, we’d have a different morality and the woke nonsense could not have gotten a foothold. It’s the way we can start to drive it out.
Dems will complain. Reps will complain. I don’t know if the 2028 elections can be saved, but if we don’t do it now, we’ll never do it.
Wage and price controls. Fiat money. China.
Sometimes I think Nixon was the Worst Republican President Ever.
I refer to Nixon as one of the most Democrat presidents we ever had. Opened trade with China, wage and price controls, EPA, Affirmative Action. Yet, the Democrats react to him like the mad-man in the Niagara Falls vaudeville routine, or the people going nuts in the Abbott & Costello Susquehanna Hats routine.
It’s how they hide. Just like calling everyone Nazis.
“I guess we’re all Keynesians now”.. insane. That isn’t economics, that is politics.
true
but the dems dont care
same way nixon got us OUT OF VIETNAM
same way TRUMP GOT THE ABRAHAM ACCORDS
they are in it for the chaos as they takeover more and more of society
with the support of the msm
the leftists/ american people will continue to revolt against america first policies
maga
defund npr pbs publicly funded education now or there is no america first
Their revolt is 30% or less so far
next move by lefty ( with the help of the usa msm)
create another “virus” and then the msm will promote:
hey ..if we didnt have trump/tariffs we’d have the medicines to combat the newest virus
these pos will stop at nothing to hurt the usa
Entirely possible. We need DOGE to be on the lookout for such conspiracies.
Trump doesn’t want zero tariffs. He wants tariffs for revenue and to promote American self-sufficiency.
It’s amazing how fast these countries were willing to go to zero tariffs. Shoulda thought of that a couple years ago. Too late now.
Go Trump, keep the tariffs!