[pstuart]

> No this administration is set on protecting industry

No, this administration ostensibly wants to Make America Great Again, but that requires policy that is focused on the greater good -- with a long term vision on the investment.

The reality is that they are actually interested in is actually a kakistocracy and has the following concerns: self-enrichment, staying in power, and oppressing its enemies.

[ninetyninenine]

All of what you said is true. But you implied making America great is not part of that.

Trust me. The kakistocracy requires America to be great. The tariffs are part of that.

Let me spell it out. The ceo of tsmc has clearly stated many times. The economics of building a fab in the US don’t make sense. Everything will be massively more expensive. The reason why it’s being done is simply to give a leg up to the US so the US can perform better at something that they are inferior at to Taiwan.

All of these policies are done to produce better outcomes in the long term but be massively painful in the short term.

I hate trump but the reality is that politics and taking sides is a cartoonish attitude. People are complex and the administration is made up multitudes of people. The reason for why they do what they do aren’t simply black and white and always in favor of just funneling more power to the upper class.

Maybe you’re right that they don’t give a shit about anyone other than self enrichment. But improving America in general doesn’t go against self enrichment, in fact improving America in general has massive long term upsides for trump. Don’t fall into the trope of taking a political side and thinking in terms of caricatures that trump is just pure evil.

[pstuart]

I do think that they want America to be great, but only in the sense of "we're number one!" (chanted incessantly). Day after day I see nothing that shows that they know what they're doing (other than following the Project 2025 playbook).

I abhor partisan politics and would have no issue pointing out the plentitude of failures that happened under Dem leadership. But the Right has this One Weird Trick where they make everything political (in a partisan sense) and the act of criticizing a policy or whatnot on its merits then becomes a "biased political opinion".

Tariffs are being used in an attempt to replace income tax (Trump has been clear about that), with a benefit of being a weapon to punish perceived enemies and with a bonus of being yet another thing he can be bribed on.

I do think that Trump is pure evil -- there's zero redeeming qualities about him. Please correct my assumption if you have anything.