r/politics • u/newsweek ✔ Newsweek • 1d ago

Elon Musk lost $11B after Trump's tariffs—and he wasn't the biggest loser

https://www.newsweek.com/musk-bezos-zuckerberg-losses-trump-tariffs-2055255
7.7k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

267 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.2k

u/Irwin-M_Fletcher 1d ago

We can congratulate Trump in starting the trade war he wanted. China has now imposed a 34% tariff on U.S. goods. It doesn’t even matter what the other 180+ countries do at this point. We are likely on an escalating path as Trump tries to get the last word.

416

u/Logical_Park7904 1d ago

American ego final boss. I don't think he or his followers realise or want to admit that the rest of the world don't need america as much as they think.

172

u/Maharog 1d ago

What sucks is objectively American economy is really important. Intentionally shitting on everything because you are trying to throw your weight around (and Trump has a LOT of weight to throw around) will have drastic and horrible consequences in the whole world. But the narcissism needed to think that other countries in the world will roll over and give you their lunch money is incredible.

50

u/ActurusMajoris Norway 1d ago

Yeah I’d rather throw my lunch money away than give it to a bully. Also, I will definitely not put thumbtacks on their chairs, but I also definitely can’t explain how they got there. It’s a mystery, really.

9

u/TraditionalSky5617 1d ago

Not only that, he hasn’t disclosed what the collected money will be used for.

I mean, we all know it’s a pickpocket scam to take $3-$5k every year from citizens to give wealthy Americans tax breaks, but hey…

I’m not sure they can tax without a formal plan this way…

5

u/Thewall3333 1d ago

Yes, weight is a good metaphor. Trump is a big kid who sees the current biggest bully pushing other kids around, doing whatever he wants to his chosen victim or two everyday. Then he finds himself the biggest kid in the playground and decides he can do whatever he wants because the other big kid did -- but overlooks the fact the other bully only bullied one or two at a time. So the second bully picks a fight with everyone at the same time, not realizing things suddenly will not go well for him.

23

u/Purple_Ad_2471 1d ago

Well, my country is extremely dependent on the US, so hopefully China takes advantage but tourism's decline will definitely impact our economy.

•

u/Jealous_Clue_5131 6h ago

Agreed. Trump has been wanting to weild the power of tariffs since the 80s. The only person in the White House who believes in them is Navarro. The smart ones in there Lutnick & Besset have had successful careers on Wall Street being proponents of free trade. They capitulate for Trump in order to hold power and retain their seats within the cabinet. Lutnick looks like a bafoon when discussing Trumps trade policy on TV, a con man, he doesn’t believe it himself. But Navarro speaks with conviction, he is also the chair of the entire trade policy apparatus within WH, essentially Lutnick gets direction from Navarro. This is a man who has never built anything or made a sizable fortune in the private sector outside of academia. Navarro is also a man badly scorned and he is going to play into all of trump’s terrible ideas instead of considering the implications. We are in for a ride.

120

u/SumpCrab Florida 1d ago

How much better would the world be if we took that money that just disappeared, and spent it on poverty, education, and infrastructure? But nope, they would rather set it on fire.

83

u/Scopeexpanse 1d ago

Yep. Somehow, for these guys, paying bit more in taxes is unacceptable but loosing $11B in net worth to own the libs is totally fine. 

27

u/HorsepowerHateart 1d ago

The oligarchs are way beyond owning the libs: they've moved on to owning the country. A temporary drop in their illiquid assets isn't even a speed bump on that road for them.

10

u/Scopeexpanse 1d ago

Yea, I suppose if your long term goal is a recession where you buy up everything for cheap that checks out. But, also, how can a human be so evil? To intentionally cause suffering so that you can accumulate more wealth. When you already have more wealth than anyone could spend in a lifetime. 

5

u/DiabolicalPherPher 1d ago

You think majority of them owned stock?

1

u/bobartig 1d ago

If the 1% all lose 1/3 of their net worth, then eventually they all pay less taxes down the line *taps head*.

14

u/divrekku 1d ago

Money didn’t disappear. Paper wealth disappeared. I get what you’re saying and agree we have enough money to fund fixing things like education, food and housing scarcity and infrastructure, but a stock market drop is a different thing.

8

u/ThePhysicistIsIn 1d ago

To some degree, the "money that just disappeared" never existed in the first place.

Like, there is ~50 trillions of value in US homes, but you couldn't take everyone's homes and sell them and use the money to solve world hunger. And if the housing market crashes tomorrow, it is bad news for the individual home owners' portfolio, but no houses have disappeared, everyone gets to still live in those houses.

1

u/Rooooben 1d ago

But you could borrow against that value. That’s what people do.

And no, they don’t get to still live in those houses, when they are foreclosed on and evicted, because of the layoffs that happened after that value disappeared, and corporations are trying to fix their revenue.

2

u/ThePhysicistIsIn 1d ago

Right, if you were laid off, you lost the ability to keep paying your mortgage.

But sometimes housing value corrects without mass layoffs, and sometimes there are mass layoffs without a drop in property price. They're correlated to the state of the economy, but they're not directly connected. The point stands that the value is mostly book value, it can't be accessed on a large scale without being destroyed. It matters for individuals deciding to buy or to sell today, not otherwise.

2

u/Stop_Sign 1d ago

Setting it on fire would be better than what's happening: it's being used to fund even more tax cuts for the wealthy

18

u/FootlongDonut 1d ago

Americans haven't suffered like they are going to since the 30's and most truly aren't prepared for this upcoming economics class.

14

u/StephenM10 1d ago

I'm from MALAYSIA. I can confirm my country never implement 47% trarriff to any goods from USA. our import taxes are by product /services. We never have blanket tariff to any country.. Even at average it never goes up to 47%.he just a blerdy liar

9

u/gdabull Europe 1d ago

He announced tariffs on uninhabited islands.

13

u/Caffeywasright 1d ago

China is a small fish in us exports. The EU is by far the biggest issue. If they impose retaliatory tariffs tantamount to the US most likely the US economy will tank. The US exports almost 400 billion dollars worth of goods to the eu every year.

4

u/Infarad 1d ago

I hope the EU hit back hard, because the US needs and deserves it.

7

u/AlbericoDukeOfAosta Europe 1d ago

As European i hope we have the mind to specif target retailatory tariffs on goods and services produced in red state and swing states who voted red

2

u/Queasy-Thanks-9448 1d ago

As a Californian, I wish we could implement that domestically...

1

u/maporita 1d ago

Across the board tariffs are like punching yourself in the face. America has decided to punch itself in the face .. we shouldn't follow them. Instead we should apply precisely targeted tariffs on only those imports that can be easily sourced elsewhere, and that target specific high profile industries in swing states.

1

u/Infarad 1d ago

Since much of the developed world have somewhat competent leadership compared to the U.S., it’s assumed responses should be calculated, targeted and methodical.

0

u/Tim_Apple_938 1d ago

The EU will be extremely financially ruined if they do. You really want their citizens to suffer just to win an argument?

1

u/Infarad 1d ago

You got your lunch money taken from you a lot didn’t you?

1

u/Tim_Apple_938 1d ago

Answer my question and I’ll answer yours.

1

u/Infarad 1d ago

Give me your lunch money.

10

u/DrCharlesBartleby 1d ago

Love how his "Retaliatory tariffs" on a fake number sparked ACTUAL tariffs much higher than the real number

7

u/gdabull Europe 1d ago

The predictions on the price increase on the new iPhone will be fun to watch in reality.

5

u/phluidity 1d ago

Hope the US consumer really likes edamame and tofu, because there is gonna be a shitload of soybeans that have no other customer. And a lot of very happy Brazilian and Canadian soybean farmers whose life just got a whole lot easier.

2

u/Oddblivious 1d ago

He said his was 60 something percent already. It would be so funny to watch China continue to move it up just below what we charge back and forth to trump hits 100% and has to stop first

2

u/Key_Contest6220 1d ago

Well thats half of the imaginary 68% tariff trump claimed so any Trump cultists should be happy china just halved its tariffs on us

7

u/Cantbanmetwice1 1d ago

Reciprocal is a word meaning to match or evenly meet.

1

u/radar939 1d ago

I hope everyone realizes that China’s imposition of 34% tariff means absolutely NOTHING. The only thing they want is US dollars. Them saying “we are charging our people 34% extra cost on US soy” is total BS. Right now, their legitimacy in the world is measured in how much USD they have in their treasury, not how many inexpensive gizmos they sell. All of this on both sides is theater to qualm the restless in their countries so there isn’t rebellion or chaos. Status quo is what our leaders want right now. Failure to attain this will result in ‘uncomfortable’ outcomes for the elite. My $0.02, keep or discard.