Trump's Tariffs Aren't Economics. They're a Cultural Purge

[Celerity]

His policies are a declaration of war on the half of America that didn’t vote for him.

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/04/08/trumps-tariffs-arent-economics-theyre-a-cultural-purge/



Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show and said the quiet part out loud: “The president is reordering trade… we are shedding excess labor in the federal government… that will give us the labor we need for the new manufacturing.” At any other time, that kind of language would set off alarm bells across the political spectrum. Are laid-off NIH cancer researchers really going to find jobs in the iPhone factories that are being relocated to America? But today, it barely registers on the MAGA meter.

To be clear, Trump himself remains motivated by the same half-baked economic ideas he’s always had: a fixation on trade deficits, rooted in the zero-sum notion that if we buy more from a country than we sell to them, we’re being “ripped off.” He’s been told repeatedly that trade deficits aren’t inherently bad. He doesn’t care. The misunderstanding is the point. And he’ll drag the global economy into a ditch rather than learn how it works.

But those around him—the far-right think tanks and political operatives shaping this agenda—are playing a longer, darker game. Trump’s tariffs aren’t just bad economics. They’re a declaration of economic war on the half of America that didn’t vote for him. This is deliberate and strategic. It’s a cultural counter-revolution disguised as industrial policy. And we know it’s not about economic leverage because Trump isn’t even pretending these tariffs are a negotiating tactic—he intends to make them permanent.

As

Trump and Musk are basically trying to deskill America:
1) kill all white-collar jobs and replace them with AI
2) kill universities
3) use tariffs to turn the U.S. into an economic island manufacturing, oil and ag hub
4) empty the cities
5) push men into manual labor & women back into the kitchen

— David Atkins (@davidoatkins.bsky.social) 2025-03-15T17:21:27.356Z" target="_blank">I said last month, the project is about deskilling America: reducing white-collar work through AI and remote job cuts, destroying universities, starving higher education, using tariffs to wall off the country as a manufacturing-and-extraction island, gutting the cities, and pushing men into manual labor while nudging women into domestic roles. It’s not incoherent—it’s a plan being implemented methodically.

snip

[walkingman]

1. Will Trump ever admit he fucked up royally? Some people never admit they are wrong.

[durablend]

3. What do *you* think ?

[walkingman]

4. He just doesn't seem like the kind of person that takes responsibility for anything.

I still cannot figure out how this madman got elected.

[MLWR]

6. There were several tactics

Voter suppression; removing people from the voter rolls; having his pet muskrat fuck with the voting machines

[nycbos]

11. People are stupid and have short memories.

Not that complicated. Throw in racism and misogyny and you get 2024

[617Blue]

2. Is Bessent using orange clown paint too?

[multigraincracker]

5. Tariffs are just another way to

Steal from the poor and give to the rich.

[tonkatoy8888]

7. AsI keep saying to friends

when we get together and ask each other, "why?".

It's Maoism. Welcome to an America's version of the Cultural Revolution.

Defund higher education, destroy science and research, and erase history. Next up is people figuratively and literally disappearing for "bad thoughts".

This bunch is systematically working through the Four Olds, Old Ideas, Old Culture, Old Customs, Old Habits.

Unless there are enough Republican senators and jurists to stop this shit, I don't even know what's going to happen and betting on the better nature of Republicans is a bet I'm queasy about making.

[OldBaldy1701E]

8. And our response?

Any time now...

[LymphocyteLover]

9. that may be their plan but that's not the way it's going to work

[Ford_Prefect]

15. True. It will be far worse because as it fails they will become ever more brutal, and punitive.

They will blame and punish all of us for their miscalculation and their misanthropy. It is what they have done historically.
As abusers the only dogma they have is to shame and punish their victims, while they assert their own false victimhood.

[LymphocyteLover]

16. Yes, I fear that. But I think his poor supporters will be hit the hardest

[Ford_Prefect]

17. Ironic when you consider that all of us are in the same, sinking boat.

Regardless of their delusional faith in false prophets, they are my neighbors, relatives, and fellow American citizens. They were gulled and programed to act against their own best interests, however cruel and stupid that was.
I do not excuse them their bad faith, or their cruelty. I damn those who knowingly manipulated them to do it.

[LymphocyteLover]

21. definitely-- I feel similarly

[iluvtennis]

10. Corporations have off-shored manufacturing over the last 4 decades. It'll take decades to get it back to the US, if

it even occurs. The manufacturing plants are currently non existent, so there aren't any places for workers to go.

Guess these MAGAt clowns will have the laid off federal workers do construction jobs to build the manufacturing plants for the corporations - yeah right 🙄.

[AdamGG]

12. Some intended results of the tariffs are

A. Shatter the western economic alliance that opposes Vladimir Putin.
B. Replace progressive US income tax with government revenue from an import sales tax.
C. Accelerate national chaos and possibly impose some kind of martial law.

[lonely bird]

14. Don't forget

At the same time, religionism is also rising with the criminalization of any abortion, the marginalization of LGBTQ+ people and the push for religionization of education.

Revisionist history will attempt to solidify the libertarian/religionist rule.

Control of the past means control of the future.

[AdamGG]

23. Though the population continues to become less religious

so religious government probably isn't a long term strategy.

[lonely bird]

24. I get your point

That being said, minority authoritarian rule claiming deity approval really doesn’t care if people actually believe as long as theocratic law is followed.

[Dr. T]

13. To make up for the labor pool lost to deportation,

Florida is gutting child labor laws. Maybe this Bessent hound will force scientists and researchers into crop harvesting careers.

[Midnight Writer]

18. Washington Monthly does it again. Best analysis of government policies out there.

[sprinkleeninow]

19. "....the same half-baked economic ideas..." nt

[Wild blueberry]

20. He's right, and it's so hateful

We all need to do what we can, where we are to defy this.
Thanks for posting this.

[GoreWon2000]

22. 21st century Smoot-Hawley tariffs

designed to make middle and low income Americans pay for the tax cuts for Elon Musk and his billionaire buddies.