Possibly Trump's stupidest tweet ever

[Demovictory9]

President Trump has issued shameful tweets, offensive tweets and self-serving tweets. Rarely, however, has he sent out a tweet that better conveys his abject ignorance about the country and economics than the tweet he posted Wednesday:


Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Our Country was built on Tariffs, and Tariffs are now leading us to great new Trade Deals - as opposed to the horrible and unfair Trade Deals that I inherited as your President. Other Countries should not be allowed to come in and steal the wealth of our great U.S.A. No longer!

No, no, no.

Our country was founded on a principle Trump often seems unacquainted with: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Unless Trump wants to retreat to a 1776-sized economy or relive the Great Depression (care of Smoot-Hawley) it’s best we not follow the outdated mercantilist philosophy that was supplanted fortunately by Adam Smith who deplored tariffs (“extraordinary restraints upon the importation of almost all sorts of goods from those countries with which the balance of trade is supposed to be disadvantageous”). Unlike Trump, Smith knew that a balance of trade “deficit” is not disadvantage, let alone a debt to be repaid or money stolen from us:

President Trump has issued shameful tweets, offensive tweets and self-serving tweets. Rarely, however, has he sent out a tweet that better conveys his abject ignorance about the country and economics than the tweet he posted Wednesday:


Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Our Country was built on Tariffs, and Tariffs are now leading us to great new Trade Deals - as opposed to the horrible and unfair Trade Deals that I inherited as your President. Other Countries should not be allowed to come in and steal the wealth of our great U.S.A. No longer!

8:04 AM - Aug 15, 2018
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No, no, no.

Our country was founded on a principle Trump often seems unacquainted with: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Unless Trump wants to retreat to a 1776-sized economy or relive the Great Depression (care of Smoot-Hawley) it’s best we not follow the outdated mercantilist philosophy that was supplanted fortunately by Adam Smith who deplored tariffs (“extraordinary restraints upon the importation of almost all sorts of goods from those countries with which the balance of trade is supposed to be disadvantageous”). Unlike Trump, Smith knew that a balance of trade “deficit” is not disadvantage, let alone a debt to be repaid or money stolen from us:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/08/16/possibly-trumps-stupidest-tweet-ever/?utm_term=.25c073e0d30c

[Rhiannon12866]

1. There needs to be some smart person who follows him around and corrects everything he says

Unfortunately, he doesn't know anyone like that...

[JHan]

2. Republicans repeating history, fucking the country over with tariff stupidity

[bucolic_frolic]

3. This was a lookee over there tweet - Is Trump stealing the wealth

Are tariffs being skimmed from the US Treasury? How would we know?

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Someone must have told him that until WWI tariffs and import taxes were the largest source...

of revenue for the Federal Govt.

Of course, that in no way means the country was "built on Tariffs", just that they were the easiest way to raise money during those times. Until the gummint needed more money than it could squeeze out of imports.

Smoot-Hawley is the best evidence we have that punitive tariffs, instituted in a fit of pique by people with an unclear understanding of economics or trade, are devastating.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_taxation_in_the_United_States (good historical stuff at that site)

[Harker]

5. Every tweet

is in the running.

[pazzyanne]

6. Seems to me, I remember something called the Boston Tea Party.

"The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act because they believed that it violated their rights as Englishmen to "no taxation without representation", which lead to the American Revolution. Sort of like tRump's tariffs that raise the price of consumer goods without any benefit to the taxpayers that are leveed by an orange buffoon. Modern day "Sons of Liberty", the resistance, may just decide to throw tRump into the Potomac River if he is not careful.