Trump looks for exit ramp.
Defeats called victories.
By Keith Thomas
5/11/2025, 2 pages
Couple of things.
IDK if Trump is completely ignorant about tariffs and what subsidies are or it’s that he knows that his MAGA cult is ignorant and will believe anything that he says. Neither one is going to be good for America.
To understand Trump’s tariff war against everybody, ally and foe alike, there are a couple of basics. I’m only providing this because there seems to be a LOT of confusion from MAGA about tariffs and subsidies.
First off what is a tariff? Here’s the definition provided by Britannica:
Tariff, tax levied upon goods as they cross national boundaries, usually by the government of the importing country. The words tariff, duty, and customs can be used interchangeably.[1]
Tariffs increase the cost of imported goods. Those costs are passed on to consumers unless the purchaser eats the extra cost of tariffs (highly unlikely, especially in this day and age of corporate greed). Large companies that have warehoused lots of products have a cushion to carry them temporarily. Small businesses don’t. Even big companies may practice some form of “just in time” inventory, leaving them without large quantities of product to rely on.
Trump keeps saying that trade deficits are subsidies. Completely stoopid. We buy more goods from China than they buy from us. That is not us subsidizing China. We’re Americans. We have more disposable income. We buy things. We are the very definition of conspicuous consumption.
I’m going to use statistics from 2023 provided by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Small businesses employ 61.6 (45.9%) million Americans and account for 43.5% of America’s GDP.[2] Over 90% of small businesses have some dependence of foreign goods.[3] (I sourced the Cato Institute here because they are right wing Libertarian and have a high factual rating.)[4]
Where am I going with this?
Glad you asked.
Mountains or molehills.
The west coast ports of the United States are emptying of Chinese Container ships. The Port of Seattle had ZERO Chinese container ships and other ports are reporting drops in traffic of 31 to 40%, something that hasn’t happened since the pandemic.[5] Another dramatic event that occurred is that ZERO container ships left China over a 12-hour period.
Container ships aren’t fast. One traveling from China to the west coast ports of entry of the United States takes 15 to 25 days.[6] Container ships from China take 30 to 40 days to reach east coast ports. What will really cause an impact is if that ZERO traffic of container ships exiting China extends counting from today. If it goes past 2 weeks, we’re in a heap of trouble soon to become a mountain if that extends to a month.
Layoffs in addition to port workers, truckers, and supply chain workers are already taking place. Tens of thousands of workers are already being laid off around the country and we’re just getting started.[7] This is on top of the tens of thousands of government workers that have been laid off. They can all get jobs at the new American factories that are going to appear overnight in Trumplandia.
Sure they can (not).
Watchful waiting.
Small businesses, including farmers, don’t have the deep pockets of large corporations to weather this financial storm. They are already being hurt. Farmers especially since their export markets are drying up and their foreign customers are looking for alternative suppliers. They risk that business not returning after Trump’s tariff war is over. And one way or another …
It will end.
Glimmer
There’s no point in anyone pretending anymore that Trump isn’t in cognitive decline. Trump is a shadow of his former self. We see that every day. He can’t keep track of himself and what he has said from one day to the next. Tariffs are on. Tariffs are off. He won’t reduce tariffs before negotiations. Trump reduces tariffs before negotiations. He announces a trade deal with the UK and then we learn it isn’t a trade deal, the UK came out on top, and stabbed U.S. autoworkers in the back.[8] Trump also refers to Matell being a country.[9]
MAGA Republicans know that they are looking at a disaster in 2026 if Trump completely crashes the economy even if they suppress the vote as much as they can. Assuming we still have elections at that point.
The best outcome that we’ll see is if Trump and MAGA use the negotiations with China to end Trump’s Trade War and declare a victory even if there isn’t any because MAGA will choose to believe absolute bullshit over the truth. MAGA has already proved their loyalty by voting again for the man responsible for killing a few hundred thousand people needlessly during the pandemic. They don’t place a high value on the lives of other people.
Only on their Dear Leader.
[1] https://www.britannica.com/money/tariff
[2] https://www.uschamber.com/small-business/small-business-data-center
[3] https://www.cato.org/blog/tariffs-uncertainty-small-businesses
[4] https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/cato-institute/
[5] https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/10/business/zero-ships-china-trade-ports-pandemic
[6] https://abl-logistics.com/
[7] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/thousands-us-layoffs-mack-truck-volvo-b2737683.html
[8] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/us-automakers-uk-trade-deal-disadvantage-b2748396.html
[9]
Matell a country now, https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-cR5O_h3MiY
Copyright © 2025 Keith Thomas. All Rights Reserved.
