Trump to Tariff Chips Made in Taiwan, Targeting TSMC | Hacker News Reader

Trump to Tariff Chips Made in Taiwan, Targeting TSMC

pcmag.com

26 points_____k10 comments

I can’t figure out if I should be investing in depressed stocks tomorrow or panic buying iPads. It’s going to be interesting to see what impact this has on the market.

Is Trump setting up Taiwan to become economically irrelevant and thinking to just let China take it over?

Or, won't this move high-tech manufacturing to elsewhere, there these goods are tax-exempt?

I don't think US can replace all the manufacturing capability and move all in country "just like that".

>“We want them to come back... And we don’t want to give them billions of dollars like this ridiculous program that Biden has given everybody billions of dollars. They already have billions of dollars” Trump said before slamming the US’s CHIPS and Science Act, which his predecessor President Biden signed to invest over $52 billion in domestic chip manufacturing.

He really will just contradict himself in the same sentence if it means he takes full credit for something in the end. Nevermind that he gave out 500 billion to a bunch of trillionaire companies not even a week ago.

Maybe he wanted to say that "We won't give billions of dollars to people I don't like, but instead will give trillions of dollars to people I like".

Who knows? I'm not from US, so it might be an absurd interpretation of what he said.

No you are right, that is pretty much the basis of his platform.

> Is Trump setting up Taiwan to become economically irrelevant and thinking to just let China take it over?

From another report:

> Jan 28 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump plans to impose tariffs on imported computer chips, pharmaceuticals and steel, he said on Monday, to push companies to manufacture more in the United States.

* https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-tariffs-chips-drugs-woul...

Personally, if I were running TSMC, I wouldn't add more production capacity in the US other than what's already in progress out of spite.

If Americans (or their rulers) want to pay extra for the same product and re-ignite inflation that's their prerogative.

Luckily, people who run massive international corporations generally don't make decisions "out of spite" or they wouldn't have a massive international corporation in the first place. You play the game you're handed. What you're suggesting is like childishly flipping the table.

> Luckily, people who run massive international corporations generally don't make decisions "out of spite" or they wouldn't have a massive international corporation in the first place.

People who run the largest economy on the planet do make decisions out of spite, e.g., "Justice Department moves to fire at least 12 officials who investigated Trump":

* https://www.npr.org/2025/01/27/nx-s1-5276334/justice-departm...

So acting like we're in a rational situation and dealing with rational counterparties would itself be irrational.

> What you're suggesting is like childishly flipping the table.

Or it could be a reasonable response at an attempt at (economic) bullying. There are some people who only understand a punch in the face.

Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42849089

Reply on news.ycombinator.com