2d ago

Fund managers quietly fear Trump doesn’t have a tariff plan and that he ‘might be insane’

www.independent.co.uk

Fund managers worry about Trump’s mental state amid tariff debacle

Trump’s tariff reversal came after he watched an interview on Fox Business with JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, during which the bank boss said that a recession was a “likely outcome” of the new trade policies, according to the Washington Post.

Trump was asked by a reporter on Wednesday when he decided to put a pause on the tariffs.

“I would say this morning. Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about it. Fairly early this morning,” he said.

113 comments

It’s important to the world to drop the “quietly” bit.
The US administration is behaving erratically and irrationally. This isn’t a punchline to some smug joke, it has important repercussions for world trade and defence needs.
Let’s cut the conspiracy theories about how they are doing this for graft, and the unfounded “4d chess” approaches. Some people in the administration may be trying to steer the government in these ways, but the captain of the ship is an unleashed chaos monkey surrounded by sycophantic yes-men.
The tariffs could double tomorrow or be gone tomorrow. The US could invade Greenland with a military force tomorrow or drop it completely move onto some shiny new idiocy.
We in the rest of the world need to move with urgency in order to be prepared for the worst. This is a tall task, so the longer we keep these admissions quiet the longer we are vulnerable
- Let’s cut the conspiracy theories about how they are doing this for graft, and the unfounded “4d chess” approaches.
  He is doing it for a grift, it's pretty out in the open. You're right about the 4d chess though. That's his thing, think like a stupid mob boss that only does it for the grift. He thinks they owe him a favor now.
  Link to video: https://nitter.net/MorePerfectUS/status/1910340290260463771#m
  Video of Trump Bragging About Enriching His Billionaire Pals Draws Outrage
  
  The video doesn’t show evidence of this being a planned out endeavour.
  For it to be grift, those people would have had to benefitted from the dip in some way. But that’s not what this shows, it’s just billionaires having their shares go down in value because of trumps idiocy and then back up from the whiplash when he erratically reversed course.
  Spraytan is trying to ingratiate himself to these rich assholes by taking credit for their gains by wilfully ignoring their losses were inflicted by him.
  This is not to say that no one in the administration is using this for their own gains. It’s entirely likely that some are.
  I’m just super sick of this narrative that Trump secretly has some master plan when we have 40+ years of well documented evidence about how stupid this man is.
  
  I agree that the grift most likely came after the actions were decided. The guy in charge is absolutely a moron that acts solely on whims. It's confusing because there are at least a couple people around with the grift agenda or their own plans that are feeding him ideas. So sometimes he uses a smart idea or he mixes what would have been a smart plan with something idiotic and/or some grift.
  It's why so many people are willing to kiss his ass. Because if you do it at the right time and you're lucky, you get temporary control of the US government.
  
  Not just likely. Demonstrably true. You can see the trading increase significantly before he made each announcement/tweet.
  
  I don't think Trump is an idiot anymore. I think he's playing a persona just like Borris Johnson. It's a cover for him. It's not his stupidity that's harming us, it's his self-centered, ego and greed driven maliciousness thats destroying our futures.
  He's not a stupid person. He's an evil person.
  
  Oh my gourd please stop
  He is a failed nepo baby whose only successes in life were being a hired hand on a reality tv show and accidentally stumbling into politics via undisguised racism.
  He
  Is
  A
  Fucking
  Moron
  
  The difficulty in convincing fellow Americans of this simple and obvious fact is the truly damning bit.
  
  We’ve all been conditioned to not accuse our political opponents of being stupid.
  For one, it can cause you to underestimate your opponents — you don’t want to be caught unawares of some secret plan.
  Second, there’s an aspect of pettiness to just labeling your opponents dumb. Most often people attribute “stupid” to “I don’t understand this”. For example, the idea of it being stupid for poor people in Kentucky or whatever to vote against their interests and aid billionaires and oppose their own healthcare — when it’s not stupid, it’s a misunderstanding of how important identity politics are to these groups.
  Third, there’s a pushback to the “Jon Stewart effect”, where we sit back and laugh about how our opponents are dumb and we smugly know we are smarter. This is an excuse to do nothing, and it’s an ugly impulse and we must fight it.
  But all this conditioning — and more — has led us to a point where we can’t actually recognize stupid when it’s staring us in the face.
  
  Your first point still applies anyway, though.
  
  #notallAmericans
  
  Intelligence is more complicated than binary. He can be a moron in most ways and a successful grifter in others.
  
  You don't need to be smart to be a grifter. It's not doctors and scientists buying most of the snake oil.
  
  The point was "smart" isn't any one thing. I have a former friend who would be judged a moron in almost every regard. He's a conspiracy theorist, obsessed with Alex Jones, believes thousands of idiotic lies. But at the same time, out of the correct history that he knows, he could run circles around me reciting it. I have a shitty memory, he has no bullshit detector
  
  A talking monkey could stumble on phrases that make people clap and repeat them.
  It doesn't take that many smarts to respond to the pavlov effect. A dog can do it.
  
  Great examples, dogs and monkeys are both a different type of intelligence. Calling them stupid is easy, but not entirely accurate...
  
  Never underestimate the enemy.
  
  Over-estimating is just as dangerous. People -- and our governments -- keep getting surprised by this pattern of behaviour because we pig-headedly refuse to admit the truth.
  In order for our countries to plan economic matters, and defense and intelligence and more -- we need to expect the same patterns of stupidity and irrationality as we've seen demonstrated time and time again. This doesn't mean all the actions will be stupid -- folks like Putin other intelligent evildoers are in the mix of those who are manipulating the president. But they have shown a lack of ability to fully control the irrational behaviour from surfacing in policy whims.
  Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me thousands of times... c'mon at some point we have to learn.
  
  Yeah, honestly I used to view the likes of Putin as a rational chessmaster. Life is teaching me a great deal, especially that leaders are not powered by raw intellect. Rather, it is the willingness to be assertive that separates the ordinary person from a leader, be they good or foul.
  
  Why not both? More often than not, evil favors bold stupidity over cautious thinking.
- He could be insane and doing it for graft. He obviously sees himself like a mobster and tries to operate like one. My theory is he wants to individually negotiate tariffs to solicit bribes from businesses and foreign countries. It's not exactly 4d chess. He just knows he has the power to pressure the richest and most powerful people on the planet, so he's going to use that power to enrich himself and family. I don't think he actually understands much about tariffs or much of anything though.
  Also, the evidence of insider trading and market manipulation is pretty convincing to me. I don't think that was the original intention, but Trump, or those around him saw the opportunity and took it.
- !lemmysilver
  
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113 comments