US Election & Presidency

(Yesterday 12:35 )southsidestu Wrote:  Perhaps what actually happened is that Trump staged a phony trade war as a PR stunt

I'm not buying that story.

Trump gave very specific reasons for the tariffs he imposed, not only border security, but to rebalance trade, saying that the US would not be trade mugs any longer. Now he's suddenly paused the tariffs because of supposed concessions on the border issue, with no mention of correcting a trade issue anymore. This suggests that Trump has definitely changed his thinking.

What made him change?

We know that Trump pays great attention to the stock market because he mentions it often, and his billionaire buddies, who's wealth is tied to the stock market, pay great attention to it too. The stock tumble on Monday wouldn't have gone unnoticed.
Canada threatened to cancel their contract with Musk for his Starlink. That's a 100 million dollar contract gone up in smoke, although how paused for 30 days in line with Trump pausing his tariffs. I can't see Muck losing that amount of business without a fight.
Rupert Murdoch told reporters on Sunday that he needed to have a word with Trump regarding the tariffs and sure enough he was seen entering the White House on Monday. Hours later the tariffs were paused. This is the same Rupert Murdoch who owns Fox News. He also owns the Wall Street Journal which had called Trump's tariffs the 'dumbest trade war in history'.

Trump lost this one.