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for reference, the Deputy White House Press Secretary's tweet (providing evidence of (2): https://x.com/KushDesai47/status/1907618136444067901

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It also proves (1), since it is a response (QRT, rather than a comment) to a tweet describing the trade deficit/exports approach, and starts with "No we literally calculated tariff and non tariff barriers.", and then presents the formula proving (2).

That formula just simplifies to trade_deficit/2*total_imports per country. It doesn't disprove anything it just looks fancier but the two extra terms are constants that simplify to 2. If you do the math it lines up for every country that didn't get the default 10% rate.

https://imgur.com/a/jBTiz7T

What’s QRT?

I assume quote retweet.

The Onion couldn't even make half of this up without looking like bad writers... but here we are

Reality isn't constrained by quality bars.

Someone quoted this headline elsewhere, so I looked up the actual article[0].

It would have been hilarious back in 2001. It's... scarily prescient in 2025. Can satire be just too good?

[0]: https://theonion.com/bush-our-long-national-nightmare-of-pea...

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