White House Considers Slashing China Tariffs to De-Escalate Trade War | Hacker News Reader

White House Considers Slashing China Tariffs to De-Escalate Trade War

wsj.com

23 pointsdoener14 comments

Regardless of what you think about the issue directly, the whiplash and chaos of back and forth news is not a good way to nurture businesses or allow them to make plans, nor is it conducive to foreign businesses doing business with American ones.

Everyone of these news articles represent hours of meetings for the senior leadership of every company in America, what is the opportunity cost of that alone?

A foreign business considering working with America would rationally choose a more stable actor even if we offered a better deal. How much will factoring in our instability literally cost American businesses. How uncomfrotable would you be as a foreign business thinking of depending on us.

This administration exists to harm America. We are experiencing a decapitation strike. Timothy Snyder -- Decapitation Strike https://archive.is/1xkxK -- https://snyder.substack.com/p/decapitation-strike

Except it's an unintentional "decapitation strike" ricochet by manufactured consent mobocracy footgunning. There was no grand conspiracy apart from minor nuisance foreign nudging and greedy swindlers, just too many people reinforcing foolishness and discontent inappropriately when they could've elected someone with integrity, liberal Western values like concern for the poor- and middle-class of the entire melting pot. America can't have healthcare for all, safe food, bodily autonomy, publicly-funded scientific research, public libraries, or public schools because that'd be "communism".

> There was no grand conspiracy

https://www.project2025.org/

You're disingenuously abusing the common definition of the word "conspiracy". That's a dumb, utopian project rather than a secret coup.

> You're disingenuously abusing the common definition of the word "conspiracy"

"An agreement or arrangement between multiple parties to do something harmful, immoral or subversive; an instance of collusion."[0]

[0]: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/conspiracy

The intentional threats and pullbacks destroy any semblance of stability in policy. It's entirely his bully game, and that's the opposite of any working negotiation or relationship.

I doubt that he has had any relationship other than abusive.

It just goes to show how stupid Trump and his supporters are. He for starting a trade war and having to eat shit and his supporters for thinking he was one of them because he is a moron.

China should maintain the tariffs on the USA, even if Trump eliminates the Chinese tariffs. This administration needs to be taught a good lesson and they need to eat their shit sandwich.

"teach a lesson" is something you do to a kid . It does not work when talking about politics or policy. No one, China or the US, wants a prolonged situation where a lot of people are made worse off. Learn from mistakes and move on. But I am not sure how Trump could have thought this would work.

From an international perspective one hard lesson learned here is that no contract with the USofA can be relied upon for at least four years, there's no promise Trump can make with respect to stability and reliability that anybody would trust.

Some would say further than 4 yrs. Enough of the voters and Congress have demonstrated that they are tolerant of this mode of leadership behaviour - internationally trust has disappeared for a generation.

> Learn from mistakes and move on

We’ll see if he’s even capable of that.

https://lite.cnn.com/2025/04/23/business/new-tariffs-trump-w...

> Learn from mistakes and move on.

Learning from mistakes requires acknowledging that mistakes occurred. Trump is notoriously averse to acknowledging his mistakes.

The lesson these events have taught the global community is as follows:

-The US is not a reliable trade partner -The US does not honor its agreements -The US is highly susceptible to political instability -Divest from the US in trade and alliances ASAP

WSJ have came out strongly against Trump's tariff policy since it went into effect..

And now they're exclusively reporting that he's going to possibly back down.

So basically the anti-tariff contingent within the Trump team are trying to get this to become a thing by getting outside elements to praise what a big smart boy Trump would be to do this and provide an off ramp for him from his idiocy.

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