Is it possible that Trump’s tariffs are a massive pump and dump scheme?

[u/RevolutionaryMany831]

EDIT: I’m not an investor, just asking a question.

Trump controls the SEC and DOJ, so who’s going to investigate or stop him?

Is it possible that Trump, his family, and billionaire buddies are benefiting from Trump’s tariffs?

Trump could be letting them know the date and time that he’s going to make the announcement to impose tariffs. Like many investors, they pull their investments but, they have a head start due to their insider knowledge.

Then he lets those on the inside know that he’s going to rescind tariffs and the date and time which he will be announcing that.

They buy the dip and profit as the market rebounds.

Rinse and repeat.

[u/SledgeH4mmer]

It's crazy how much people try to rationalize Trump's policies. The reality is that he just doesn't understand what he's doing. Many of his voters kept trying to claim his early comments about taking over Greenland and Canada were "just trolling." Now they're seeing that he's really that delusional.

[u/boisheep → u/SledgeH4mmer]

It happens over and over in every aspect in our lives, in every video, reddit thread, it also gives rise to conspiracy theories.

Truth it that the order of weird human actions and the why comes in this order.

1. Stupidity. (Overwhelmingly Likely)
2. Incompetence. (Highly Likely)
3. Malice. (Somewhat Likely)

But people always jump to the least likely of the 3 because we are always looking for it, people like to believe evil explains it all, when evil is usually the least likely.

The biggest threat of humanity is idiots, not evil.

And we'd even demonize those idiots later just to keep our agenda, thinking that they did this all in some grand plot, rather than, mere idiocracy. These include grand evil characters of the past, that were more idiot than evil and that's how they sent the world to chaos.

[u/FrenchFryCattaneo → u/boisheep]

Yes, more people need to realize this. I think it's because of the 'just world' fallacy, the mistaken belief that most things in the world make sense. People want to believe that trump is a scheming mastermind or a russian puppet, because it means at least everything is done with purpose for a reason. To stop him all we have to do is figure out his scheme and reveal the truth, at which point we'd all know he was a bad criminal.

But the reality is far more frightening, which is that Trump is an idiot with too much power, and the republicans in power are also idiots who see Trump as an opportunity to push each of their personal agendas. And the democrats have no political power and are also mostly idiots with no idea how to oppose something like this. It's scary to think our country is being run by people no smarter than the random people you knew in high school. That is truly unsettling.

[u/boisheep → u/FrenchFryCattaneo]

What is worse is that It's not just your country.

I live in Finland I got affected, I lost money that was in stock market in Europe because of the decisions of Trump, I can't believe, also some local parties are keen to copy, it's insane.

And while that is the case in a globalized world, and while it is fine to have a globalized world because we all benefit for the good that other countries can bring to the market; we get affected by the decisions of idiots with power in other places because of this. :(

[u/One-Neighborhood-843 → u/boisheep]

To be fair, I want to jumpt to the 3 because I cannot believe someone can be THAT stupid, while everybody saw that coming.

Especially when you're POTUS.

[u/boisheep → u/One-Neighborhood-843]

We all want to :(

I lost money with the stock tanking.

[u/ADHD-Fens → u/boisheep]

Well to be fair, it can be all three. I do get the distinct impression that Trump is absolutely doing this maliciously - or for the purpose of self enrichment, but is just too incompetent to actually execute it properly and too stupid to surround himself with people who would actually be able to advise him.

It's like if a kid got really mad at you for not letting him use the Xbox, so he smashes the Xbox when you're not looking, but accidentally hit himself with the hammer, and then cries for weeks that the Xbox is broken and blames you for not buying a new one.

[u/boisheep → u/ADHD-Fens]

That is true, but succesfully evil people don't tend to be idiots like this, they tend to be more cunning and calculating if they are going to try to pull something off.

But indeed there's also idiot, incompetent and evil.

But usually people out there are trying to do that what they believe is right, however intentions are not an excuse for bad actions and bad outcomes, I think politicians should be accountable for outcomes and not merely intentions and their outcomes subject to trial.

[u/Ivy0789 → u/SledgeH4mmer]

You are wrong. Well, he may not, but the people behind him do.

They even wrote it down and published it.

[u/Rex_Laso → u/SledgeH4mmer]

Remember those same supporters were big believers of Qanon as well...

[u/NEWSmodsareTwats → u/SledgeH4mmer]

I mean multiple times during the campaign Trump said he wanted to weaken the dollar and shake up global trade which is kind of exactly what the tariffs will do.

[u/CitizenDildo12 → u/SledgeH4mmer]

One of the most dangerous mistakes you can make is underestimating your opponent…

[u/suckrates → u/SledgeH4mmer]

The rug pull with the Melania crypto was real and obvious. What makes you think they're not just playing the market with the tariffs?

[u/Kerberos1566 → u/SledgeH4mmer]

People will desperately try to rationalize it because the alternative is truly terrifying. Yes, we really were dumb enough to elect a demented imbecile to the Presidency and gave him near total immunity and a complicit Congress. The future of our democracy is at best on a knife's edge and at worst already toast. We're headed into a severe depression thanks to this idiot's trade war, followed shortly by WWIII as he invades our allies for relatively pointless land grabs. The death camps are already open and filling up. If you've ever wondered how Germans and the rest of the world alike could sit back while Hitler rose to power: this, this is exactly how. Now imagine if Hitler was 1000x dumber and also had nukes. We are so fucked they will have to come up with new words for how fucked we are, if humanity even survives this.

[u/empireofadhd → u/SledgeH4mmer]

Anyone who has been around any level of management would know it’s mostly qualified guesses based on experience and some data. Most of the time there is not enough time to go through huge amounts of data so you have to act in the moment.

The problem with Trump is that he is too narcissistic. To function as a leader you have to be a bit rough to take those decisions but in his case it’s way over the top. Also he has selected advisors which are not of poor quality.

There is a bottom in this crash but I don’t think we are there yet. I think there will be some positive outcomes of this, like a bit more independent Europe.