Trump Tariffs
Matt Seinberg

Once again, President Trump thinks he knows what is best for the USA and the rest of world. Not only did he impose a 25% tariff on most goods coming to the USA from China, now he wants to impose a 5% tariff on goods coming from Mexico to help cut off immigration; one of the stupidest ideas I ever heard.

• Tariffs on Mexico are churlish.

Does Trump think that all of a sudden the Mexican government is magically going to stop their citizens from crossing the border? Although unemployment is at a historic low, a great many of the jobs are in hospitality, such as fast food or service, and retail, which mostly pay minimum wage or less. High paying manufacturing jobs are being lost to China, Mexico and Vietnam.

The American South used to be a centre for furniture manufacturing. That is no longer true. Although some companies maintain the final finishing and distribute from down south, manufacturing is mostly gone offshore; in many cases, the quality of offshore manufacturing at least matches domestic manufacturing standards.

Wages in domestic manufacturing jobs became sky high and those companies had a choice to make. Close the factories and go out of business or send it overseas for manufacture, much less expensively. What would you do, given this Hobson’s choice?

Well, guess what, with these tariffs, prices are going up. Is our president trying to convince American companies to shift manufacturing back here? Seems he’s taking the hard way around that result.

Weren't the new tax incentives supposed to do that, bring US companies back? The Chinese are laughing at America and imposing tariffs on our goods. What could they possibly want from us that they can't make themselves?

Did you know that China is one of the largest markets for General Motors (GM) products? How will these new tariffs affect those sales? Of course, GM has factories in China with various strategic partners, so certain products are not affected.

• Trump has an ego the size of his Tower.

Our president has an ego the size of his Tower (sic) in New York City and that's dangerous for the man with his finger on the nuclear button. If North Korea, Iran, China or Russia does something to piss him off, what will his reaction be? I'm sure it wouldn't be something rational.

This baby man is an egotistical, megalomaniacal sociopath; he has no business being our president. In his new book, Siege: Trump under wife, Michel Wolff paints a vivid word-picture of a man coming unglued at an accelerating pace. Wolff, as he did in Fire and Fury, relies heavily on Steve Bannon, the former Trump advisor, to find meaning in White House gaffs and misfirings.

Wolff calls Bannon the best Virgil for any writer. In the acknowledgments, Wolff writes that Bannon is “the most clear-eyed interpreter of … Trump.” This is a disturbing assessment.

Can you tell that I don't like President Trump? He totally screwed up our tax system. He gave big business and undeserved super rich taxpayers, many his friends as well as himself, huge tax breaks.

Trump took from the middle class. He gave the bounty to his wealthy pals. Now, he thinks of himself as Robin Hood.

How unfair is it that our state and local taxes, mortgage and home equity interest is no longer federal tax deductible after $10,000? My real estate taxes are more than that and always increasing. High income and high cost of living states, such as New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and California, hurt most from infliction of the new tax code.

The question is, how long will it take those higher prices to trickle down from factories to distributors to retailers and finally to the customer. In my company, they are furiously trying to move manufacturing out of China and into Vietnam. They've already raised prices on some of our products; I can see higher prices in the near future.

What of the dollar type stores, which sell inexpensive merchandise that we all need at one time or another? I know I go in with the intention of only spending a couple of bucks, but ending up spending more. We never have enough storage bags or plastic food storage bins, do we?

• Who can defeat Trump?

What can we do? In 2020, vote this idiot out of the White House and put in a man or woman that knows how to actually govern and listen to the people. The question is who is that person?as