Leopards go “nom, nom, nom”.
Truckers are starting to feel the impact of tariffs.
They have built up quite a bit of inventory now (inside the US and also outside (in Canada as well for US export)) so they will be running that down over the next few months.
Logistics (shipping, trucking) from ports etc will feel the pain right away.
I don’t see Xi backing down here (Cultural reasons) so Trump is likely to ignore this until prices start climbing over the second half of the year.
We will then have to see just how much poorer the MAGA folks are willing to get before they grudgingly accept that Trump is not going to be helping them either.
Facts will not avail you, Obi-wan
Not a trucker but I was talking to a guy the other night who has a friend whose whole business was predicated on selling a certain kind of beef to to China that can’t really be sold elsewhere. I’m pretty sure he’s regretting his Trump vote about now.
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“We’re going to run 90 deals in 90 days,” Navarro told Fox Business a couple of weeks ago, adding that such a plan “is possible” in part because “the boss is going to be the chief negotiator.” It was against this backdrop that Time magazine asked the president why there haven’t yet been any trade deals.
“No, there’s many deals,” Trump replied, adding, “I’ve made all the deals.”
Time’s reporters, understandably confused, asked, “Not one has been announced yet. When are you going to announce them?” Instead of answering directly, the president said, “I’ve made 200 deals.”
Seeking clarification, Time’s reporters asked, “You’ve made 200 deals?” to which Trump replied, “100%.”
There are 195 countries in the world.
The WH clarified that he was counting sub-deals that are part of bigger deals.
Sure, but that’s just sanewashing. At the most overly generous, they are “close to deals”, while China for example rejects Trump’s claims.
Paywall bypass: https://archive.is/20250428060929/https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-trade-deals-cabinet-cant-name-any-1235326080/
“On the deals, we have 100 countries that are knocking on the door,” Rollins said. “I believe — I’m not in the room, I’m not negotiating the trade deals. But my understanding is, we should have several this week that are coming forward that are very, very close. China is a very important one. Every day, we are in conversation with China, along with those other 99, 100 countries that have come to the table.”
Of course, having some deals that are “very, very close” is not the same thing as having made “200 deals,” as Trump has explicitly claimed.
While Trump and his administration have claimed they are in ongoing negotiations with China, Chinese officials have said that those talks have not happened. The Chinese ministry of commerce said that the administration’s claims they are in daily contact “are groundless and have no factual basis.”
“China and the United States have not held consultations or negotiations on the tariff issue, let alone reached an agreement,” the ministry said Thursday.
It seems counterproductive to negotiations for China to publicly imply that Trump is a liar while they’re actively wrapping up a trade deal.
It is disconcerting that Trump doesn’t even consider the plausibility of his lies anymore. He obviously feels he can lie outrageously without any consequences. He’s entering a new level of indifference to the real world.
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As expected, there was a massive surge of imports to beat the April tariffs.
Trade Balance materially deteriorated vs 2024
And Trump can point to the massive March trade deficit as proof he needs to fix the trade imbalance rather than acknowledging that the March uptick was caused by the threat of his impending tariffs.
I think this has been the case since he was a youngster not getting the love he needed.
RIP Fred
Back in his real estate / casino mogul tabloid celebrity status days of the 80’s and early 90’s, he was well-known for telling some whoppers with a wink, as if to let the listener know that he knew he was telling a whopper.
The change is that since at least the time when Obama roasted him… he’s actually been taking his whoppers seriously.
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Someone’s throwing a temper-tantrum at having the public made aware of the consequences of certain decisions:
NYT Gift Link: White House Attacks Amazon Over Idea of Showing Tariffs’ Cost
On a hobbyist mailing list I subscribe to, discussion has turned political because a major retailer supporting the hobby doesn’t show a line item for “tariffs”, but the value shown for “taxes” now exceeds the price of some of the goods being sold.
EDIT: Bezos apparently feels a need to emphasize that Amazon isn’t going to do it:
This is a pretty clear attempt at trying to cover up the economic damage from the tariffs via government targeted propaganda. A private company can choose to show the pricing that it wants to as long as it doesn’t breach any regulations.
Leavitt has basically turned the WH into Pravda news service.
It is similar to showing a sales tax on slips which all Canadian retailers insisted on doing when a VAT was first introduced here. They wanted to show that the government, not the retailer, was adding this charge.
Leavitt complained that Amazon did not show a separate a separate “inflation tax” on its invoices during the Biden administration so accused Amazon of being political on Trump policies but apolitical in Biden era. Makes my head spin.
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That gets worse when international travelers fall to a trickle. That’s 200-250B a year at risk.