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Tariffs Aren’t Tantrums—They’re Strategy
American Greatness ^ | 4 Aug, 2025 | Steve Cortes

Posted on 08/06/2025 5:31:24 AM PDT by MtnClimber

Trump’s trade strategy isn’t chaos—it’s calculated disruption, using American leverage to reshape global markets and deliver wins his critics can’t comprehend.

What Trump’s critics don’t understand—and probably never will: President Trump isn’t rattled. He’s composed, deliberate, and in control—which drives his opponents crazy.

But instead of fixating on his tone, measure his results. Trade victories are stacking up, each one strategically designed to favor America.

And why shouldn’t we enjoy these kinds of wins?

We earned them through generations of sweat, toil, and ingenuity, all of which built the U.S. consumer market into the most coveted in the world—the literal engine of global discretionary demand. Access to it isn’t automatic, and therein lies the leverage. For the first time in decades, we have a leader who knows how to employ those earned advantages.

Critics see disruption and scream chaos, but they confuse volatility with recklessness. In reality, disruption is the strategy. Tension is the prerequisite tool, and while it makes some ninnies uncomfortable, this rigged system cannot be unwound by simply asking politely. After decades of American acquiescence on trade, the old economic regime will not just submissively fade away.

Accordingly, this process isn’t accidental—it’s engineered. Trump guards the strategic sectors of the U.S. economy through calculated, targeted, and surgical incentives and prohibitions to grow domestic production of semiconductors, steel, medicine, energy, and defense technology.

Behind the TV news chyrons and hand-wringing, a blueprint unfolds. This emerging paradigm harnesses America’s unmatched strengths to reorient global trade and tip the balance back toward U.S. workers.

That kind of work demands poise, not polish. That kind of grand task necessitates brains, leverage, and calm under pressure. Think Tom Brady in the pocket: the chaos swirls, the hits keep coming—but he hangs in and delivers the throw.

Trump operates the same way. While his critics flinch, he closes. This isn’t small-ball, and these wins are not incremental. Instead, this process accelerates a truly global correction—long overdue—and only possible through business instincts brought into geopolitics.

Even former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss would recognize the method. In Never Split the Difference, Voss lays it out: apply pressure. Stay detached. Never settle halfway.

Sound familiar?

But Trump’s critics cannot see past their own biases to discern the mounting stack of headline-worthy wins. Consider the results, just in July:

European Union:

- $600B in EU investment

- $750B in U.S. energy purchases

- Broad tariff reductions for American exports

- 15% across-the-board tariffs for European firms—unless they move production to the U.S. and hire American workers.

Japan:

- The tariff cap was lowered to 15% (from 25%)

- $550B investment fund with direct U.S. veto power

South Korea:

- 15% tariff agreement

- $350B investment in the U.S.

- $100B LNG purchase commitment

China:

- Talks resume.

- Tariff protections hold.

- The deadline looms—and the leverage is as American as apple pie.

Tariffs aren’t punishment—they’re strategy. In this new era, tariffs represent policy and positioning. They compel the secure rebuilding of supply chains. In this process, America reclaims the leverage we are due, and reasserts our primary role in shaping the terms of global trade—not reacting to them.

So, it’s not a tantrum, not remotely. It’s a recalibration.

As Scott Adams wrote in Win Bigly, Trump isn’t unpredictable. He’s persuasive.

He throws the political equivalent of a knuckleball—deliberately unconventional and difficult to counter.

Adams and Trump recognize that superpowers don’t beg and don’t need to ask for permission. We are done allowing the ruling class of this country to profit and thrive by managing a national decline.

What beckons? Nothing less than a golden age—built on leverage, clarity, and control.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: fairtrade
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1 posted on 08/06/2025 5:31:24 AM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

I don’t find it difficult to understand the tariff strategy. What is wrong with leftists?


2 posted on 08/06/2025 5:31:38 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

BTTT


3 posted on 08/06/2025 5:36:35 AM PDT by nopardons
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To: MtnClimber

Tariffs are a tool.

Results depend on the skill and the motivation of the person wielding the tool.

Trump uses the tool benefit the US.

Deep State uses it to harm the US.


4 posted on 08/06/2025 5:36:35 AM PDT by mewzilla (Swing away, Mr. President, swing away!)
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To: mewzilla

Tariffs are like firearms.

Think of it that way.


5 posted on 08/06/2025 5:37:45 AM PDT by mewzilla (Swing away, Mr. President, swing away!)
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To: MtnClimber

Tariffs are LEVERAGE

On the world economic/trade markets, the US is perpetually a buyer more than a seller.

That’s a sad state of affairs for us, but that’s another topic.

The one advantage it does have is that most of our trade partners need access to our market more than we need theirs.

This is called leverage.

Trump is the only one to use it.


6 posted on 08/06/2025 5:39:12 AM PDT by z3n (Kakistocracy)
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To: MtnClimber

“understand the tariff strategy.”

It’s logical... and it works ...
the left can’t understand those concepts.

Trump has been a step ahead on every play.
I wondered about a few calls ... but had faith .. and sure enough .... BOOM .

by the way ..... I voted for this .... you can thank me later..(kidding)


7 posted on 08/06/2025 5:39:43 AM PDT by 1of10 (be vigilant , be strong, be safe, be 1 of 10 .)
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To: MtnClimber

Yes. Very good policy. The Art of the Deal.


8 posted on 08/06/2025 5:40:14 AM PDT by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: MtnClimber

“What’s wrong with leftists?”

What isn’t?

That aside, tariffs are to prevent poaching of markets by making the imported product high enough in cost to justify starting or expanding production domestically. It would be an ideal situation if each country were sufficiently self-supporting to provide all basic needs with no imports, as food, fiber, medicine, machine tools and energy sources, with only luxury goods, or personal preferences (a sort of snob appeal) in foreign goods really affected by tariffs.

But this is not an ideal world. Some products cannot be produced domestically, and by definition, have to be imported if they are important to the economy. This makes the importing country a vassal state to the exporting country, suffering every whim of the master state.

Side note - almost every product out there has a substitute for a specific purpose, and these substitutes can be engineered or adapted from existing purposes.


9 posted on 08/06/2025 5:45:10 AM PDT by alloysteel (Try to understand, God is not finished with me yet. Still lots of room for improvement.)
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To: PGalt
And The Art of War. :-)
10 posted on 08/06/2025 5:48:53 AM PDT by mewzilla (Swing away, Mr. President, swing away!)
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To: MtnClimber

Leverage has always been the natural order of relationships throughout history, whether personal, business, territorial or governmental. When you got it, you use it. Trump is the first in the Presidency to recognize our wealth and consumption power can be on the same level as our military power in the game of leverage...and it doesn’t cost us a dime to employ it.


11 posted on 08/06/2025 6:00:35 AM PDT by chuckee
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To: mewzilla

👍😎


12 posted on 08/06/2025 6:09:19 AM PDT by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: MtnClimber

During the recalibration, American consumers absorb the Tariff tax increase and the proceeds paid to the government are applied to the massive debt


13 posted on 08/06/2025 6:17:56 AM PDT by bert ( (KE. NP. +12) Where is ZORRO when California so desperately needs him?)
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To: MtnClimber

Nobody wins a trade war. Tariffs are a “strategy” only if they end-up not being applied, as with Trump’s deals. If they actually take effect, or if foreign nations retaliate, they’re going to hurt.


14 posted on 08/06/2025 6:24:48 AM PDT by Socon-Econ (adi)
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To: MtnClimber

Trump’s critics don’t understand.

Ignorance is all they ever had to work with and it never gets any better.

The socialists believe goverment is the tit of life.


15 posted on 08/06/2025 6:55:19 AM PDT by Vaduz
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To: MtnClimber
Insulate your refrigerator really well.

.

Assuming no major Hurricanes.

Transformer crisis looms as Trump’s trade wars cripple global supply chains

Transformer shortage crisis: The U.S. faces a 3–5 year wait for transformers (vs. weeks in 2020), stalling AI and industrial projects due to Trump’s tariffs on India (60% global supply) and China (20%).

Grid instability threat:Domestic production meets only 20% of demand, delaying Trump’s $1T AI data-center plan until 2028, risking blackouts and infrastructure collapse.

Trade war paradox: Tariffs on transformer materials (e.g., copper, aluminum) and imported factory components hinder reshoring efforts, crippling domestic manufacturing before it starts.

16 posted on 08/06/2025 7:03:02 AM PDT by Karl Spooner
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To: MtnClimber

Trump has no cards on China. They have the rare Earth’s the MIC needs. [2-3] So instead his neocons pick on his friend Modi [1] and India which is needed to counterbalance China our foe. China has the USA over the barrel. I will take years to get our rare earths up and running if at all.

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49788492

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/20/us/politics/trump-china-technology.html

[3] https://www.reuters.com/technology/nvidia-resume-h20-gpu-sales-china-2025-07-15/


17 posted on 08/06/2025 7:34:40 AM PDT by medical conservative
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To: Karl Spooner

Yeah this one Too. India supply’s most of the world of Transformers. We can’t even make much of our own supply anymore even if we tried.

God help us if our grid is wiped out by about 3-4 EPM attacks. Most of the USA would starve in 6 months without help from all of our global friends

Even North Korea could do it.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2017/10/23/north-korea-emp-attack-would-cause-mass-u-s-starvation-says-congressional-report/


18 posted on 08/06/2025 7:43:53 AM PDT by medical conservative
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To: MtnClimber

Leftists are against everything from Trump, and good for America.


19 posted on 08/06/2025 8:42:05 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: MtnClimber
Re: "Trump's trade strategy isn't chaos."

Politically - which is what ultimately matters - the Trump team has done a pitiful job of explaining it.

Almost every country in the world had tariffs, or strict trade policies, on USA imports, before Trump won the 2024 election.

90% of Trump Tariffs simply equal the foreign tariffs, or balance foreign trade policies, that were already in place when Trump walked back into the White House.

When I watch news reports or read comments about Trump Tariffs, I would be surprised if 25% of voters understand what is going on.

20 posted on 08/06/2025 12:04:57 PM PDT by zeestephen (Trump Landslide? Kamala lost the election by 230,000 votes, in WI, MI, and PA.)
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