> Why is no one highlighting how this is repeating history 8 years ago?
Because it’s not? The tariffs which are currently in effect or soon to go into effect are so far out of line with anything in modern history that there is no comparison.
The reason everyone is panicking is because people expected more of the same as 8 years ago but instead we got something massively worse, without a hint of cohesive strategy, and that has gone into effect rapidly and on the whims of one person who can’t even appear to get on the same page as his advisors.
Everyone knows there’s some element of bluffing going on, but that’s also the problem; This administration knows their bluffs would be transparent this time so they decided to go extra big to make a point. This becomes a problem for all of the people and companies whose business was suddenly upended by out of control tariffs with little time to prepare (compared to the smaller tariffs everyone was preparing for)
They’re banking on the damage either not being directly noticed by their voter base, or being able to convince their voter base that the damage is actually a good thing. I’m already seeing people applaud these actions as if they were narrowly targeted at cheap Chinese goods on Amazon or fast fashion, without realizing how much of the inputs to our economy go through one of the countries with tariffs ranging from 25-145%.
Some people are determined to adopt contrarian positions and act like they’re above it all, but the people who have to deal with the consequences of this stuff (myself included) are taking a lot of damage from these supposedly no big deal negotiations. It’s not being handled well. Even if they were to disappear tomorrow, a lot of damage has been done and they’re hoping people like you will find a way to rationalize it away as not a big deal
For some reason, it stinks of a none too smart AI making economic decisions without taking psychology or a bunch of real life costs into account.
It is a losing strategy.
> They’re banking on the damage either not being directly noticed by their voter base, or being able to convince their voter base that the damage is actually a good thing.
Are we really still at the stage where we seriously think this is how people vote? Its not. You just need to energize enough people in your sufficiently big enough bubble to believe in a cause and make sure that the other side thinks "both sides are bad".
> without a hint of cohesive strategy
It's all quite cohesive once one stops the futile search for an underlying strategy that enriches america, and instead looks for evidence of a strategy that enriches Trump.
"These insects infected with cordyceps show no hint of a cohesive strategy for staying alive..."
Lol there was no 'cohesive strategy' 8 years ago, what the heck you wtite about. You suffer some memory loss?
He was chaotic, he was doing ego polishing reality show from day 1. The only difference was a 'barrier of sanity' that people around him formed, dampening his bipolar outbursts into more reasonable actions (or lack of thereof, often without his knowledge). He eventually fired all of them, forgot that part?
Now he has just pure yes men around him, licking his ass and patiently waiting for him to die or get killed (vance has a look and behavior of patient calculating sociopath for example, he may be much worse if given chance)
I think you misunderstood my comment as being pro-Trump in some way, but it absolutely was not. I was explaining why this round of tariffs is not a repeat of 8 years ago, it’s much worse. That’s it.
> what the heck you wtite about. You suffer some memory loss?
> licking his ass and patiently waiting for him to die or
I can see why political threads on HN are flagged away so aggressively. It’s hard to want to even try to have a conversation when this is the level of discourse getting upvoted.
> people expected more of the same as 8 years ago
Only ignorant close minded gullible people who refused to listen to all the experts and intelligent people paying attention, who have all now been totally vindicated, after warning about it at the top of their lungs, and who are now fully entitled to say "I TOLD YOU SO".
Expert Comment: What might President Trump’s second term mean for the world?
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-02-05-expert-comment-what-mig...
What to expect from Trump’s second term: more erratic, darker, and more dangerous:
https://thebulletin.org/2024/11/what-to-expect-from-trumps-s...
Accelerated transgressions in the second Trump presidency:
https://brightlinewatch.org/accelerated-transgressions-in-th...
Trump’s second term could bring chaos around the world. Will it work?
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/09/world/analysis-trump-seco...
Donald Trump’s Revenge: The former President will return to the White House older, less inhibited, and far more dangerous than ever before:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/donald-trump-wins-a-...
Why the worst president ever will be even worse in a second term: I suppose some observers might think Donald Trump’s first term represented rock bottom. My advice for those thinking along those lines: Just wait:
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/worst-pr...
What the world thinks of Trump’s return to the US presidency:
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/what-t...
How bad could a second Trump presidency get? The damage to America’s economy, institutions and the world would be huge:
https://www.economist.com/briefing/2024/10/31/how-bad-could-...
What Will Happen to America if Trump Wins Again? Experts Helped Us Game It Out:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/10/10/country-a...
Trump presidency could damage economy if he weakens democracy, experts say: Trump has threatened to prosecute political rivals, including Kamala Harris:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-presidency-damage-econ...
What could Trump's second term bring? Deportations, tariffs, Jan. 6 pardons and more:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/second-trump-presidency-implica...
I’m an Economist: Here Are My Predictions for Inflation If Trump Wins:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/m-economist-predictions-infla...
Trump’s economic plans would worsen inflation, experts say: They fear that Trump's proposals would “reignite’’ inflation, which has plummeted since peaking at 9.1% in 2022 and is nearly back to the Fed’s 2% target:
https://whyy.org/articles/trump-economic-plan-worsen-inflati...
Thank you it seems everyone has already forgotten project 2025.
Look I don't want to be too harsh on Americans nobody took the Nazis seriously when they had already written a book about how they saw the world... But none of this is shocking.
There is an ideology behind what Trump is doing and he never hid it from the world.
As an American please be careful blaming all of us for this. Less than 1 in 4 Americans voted for Trump. It doesn’t mean you need to buy an F-150 but please separate the concept of the American people from the GOP voter base. The complexities of our electoral system and our unique racist history made this very hard to avoid. Please don’t assume Americans in general wanted this or are ok with it.
> nobody took the Nazis seriously when they had already written a book about how they saw the world.
This is completely false. A cursory internet search will find many examples. Churchill was a vocal opponent of the Nazis in the 1930s.
> But none of this is shocking.
Right. Nobody who was paying attention is shocked. This includes many Americans.
> Less than 1 in 4 Americans voted for Trump
Yea and it seems the 75% of population cannot do anything about Trump now.
I wonder when people will wake up to the fact that USA does not actually have a democracy.