In Reply to: Does Trump have a plan? posted by SagoBob on March 27, 2025 at 13:05:24
1. Tariffs give him leverage in negotiating with other countries. He probably envisions raising tariffs and making demands that will force other countries to make concessions to the U.S. in exchange for Trump dropping the tariffs.
2. If he believes his own rhetoric, tariffs will provide a new, magical stream of revenue that will allow him to dramatically lower income taxes.
The problem is that 1 and 2 cannot be true at the same time. Either tariffs are tactical and temporary or tariffs are strategic and permanent. They cannot be both.
Trump has an immense capacity to believe contradictory things.