President-elect Donald Trump is threatening to add the 27 countries that make up the European Union to the list of trade partners he'll place tariffs on — unless the group takes steps to import more U.S. goods.
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!!!”
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.
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
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%.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Donny, buddy, you can take your oil and you can take your gas and you can stick it where the sun don't shine. Also, it sounds like no one has told you that the EU is not a country. Dumbass.
Context/explanation: (at least that's how i explain it to myself)
It's about pride. Trump doesn't like that the "greatest of all countries" US is threatening to have an (even larger) export deficit with china in the future, so he wants to put up tariffs to slow down international trade; this way the deficit becomes a bit smaller he hopes.
And while we're already at it, let's extend these tariffs to europe, just for good measure, or so
Sir, yourope? That's spelled EUROPE. OK all good? Let me know if you need anything else! Oh diaper change? Already? OK I'll call Jason and Bobby and Fred they know how to do it. They are the bigliest experts.