Lawrence

[Ocelot II]

2. To be fair, while Trump has always misrepresented what a tariff is,

the NYT article really didn't. What the author, Peter Baker, actually said about this particular serving of word salad was this:

What he seemed to be saying was that he would raise so much money by imposing tariffs on imported goods that the country could use the proceeds to pay for child care. In itself, that would be a disputable policy assumption.

But the failure to articulate the point, or any point, in a clear way left many in the room scratching their heads, including the questioner, and the response was eventually seen by millions on social media. It was, fair to say, an answer that did not age well.

LOD was absolutely correct in calling this paragraph sanewashing. But Baker didn't characterize tariffs as a tax paid by a foreign country as LOD claimed. He did note many instances of Trump's weirdness and incoherence, probably for the first time in the NYT. The whole article is here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/09/us/politics/debate-trump-age-capacity.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Jk4.3MxC.EKlcnmT0rJ69&smid=url-share