Stupid Trump

| 9:00 pm EDT May 3, 2024
Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.

Donald Trump is an evil, racist, poor excuse for a human being, but those aren’t his worst traits. This man wants to run the country, and he’s as dumb as a box of rocks. In an opinion piece for MSNBC, Hayes Brown explained that Trump still doesn’t understand how inflation works. Yet, he has the nerve to fix his mouth to say that President Biden’s policies have led to inflation. How can he know that when he doesn’t even understand how it works? One of Trump’s favorite policies is tariffs, something that everyone knows will increase, not decrease inflation.

During his interview with Time, Trump touted his plan to create 10% tariffs across the board on all imports. According to Trump, this means that countries that import goods to the U.S. will pay 10% to the Treasury, though he said it could account to even more. He is so wrong. Any reputable expert on tariffs will tell you that tariffs are paid by the importers as the goods come into the U.S., not by the exporting company. As a result, companies will raise their prices to accommodate for what they’re paying out in tariffs. Tariffs, then, obviously make prices go up, not down.

Eric Cortellessa interviewed Trump for Time. He obviously knows how tariffs work, and he asked Trump if he is comfortable with the fact that his beloved tariffs would create inflation. Trump, of course, argued that wouldn’t happen, but Cortellessa pressed on, asking Trump whether he thinks businesses will pass those costs on to their customers. Trump responded: “No, I think what happens is you build. What happens to get out of the whole situation is you end up building, instead of having your products brought in from China, because of the additional cost, you end up making the product in the United States.” Yet another useless word salad from Trump. He really doesn’t get it, does he? Many companies have their products manufactured outside the country to save on labor. Trump’s plan that he claims will “help them build” will do no such thing. No company is going to change its business model-which it created to save costs-simply because Dumb Donald thinks it’s a good idea. No wonder he’s filed for bankruptcy so many times. He wants to bankrupt these companies to prove some point that will never materialize.

As MSNBC reported, major economists agree that Trump’s plan will lead to higher costs. Paul Ashworth, chief North American economist for London’s Capital Economics wrote an analysis on the issue. His result was: “Most of the major policy initiatives being suggested by Donald Trump’s campaign would be inflationary; whether it’s narrowing the trade deficit via tariffs or dollar devaluation, curbing immigration or, now we learn, compromising the Fed’s independence.” Trump will never listen to economists or anyone else with authority on any subject. He thinks he’s the smartest man alive, and that is his biggest problem. While his supporters think he’ll do better on the economy and inflation than President Biden, we will all suffer from their ignorance.

Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.