A distraction gimmick would imply strategy and planning, he's just running around the West Wing screaming "TARIFF" at anything that moves - ThreadSky

scalzi.com • 27 days ago

A distraction gimmick would imply strategy and planning, he's just running around the West Wing screaming "TARIFF" at anything that moves

Reposted from Havi Goffan

This is a distraction gimmick. He may never get to impose the tariffs but have us all talking about it. His goal is to be the “emperor”.

Comments

eggshappedegg.bsky.social•26 days ago

Wasn't this what he did last time around too?

Take stuff away and give it back as gifts? Ruin things and fix some of them as an accomplishment?

nemoris.bsky.social•26 days ago

legaleagle7223.bsky.social•27 days ago

I don’t think he even knows it’s going to result in higher prices.

skippythekangaroo.bsky.social•27 days ago

If he did he wouldn’t care

legaleagle7223.bsky.social•27 days ago

Agreed. Just pointing out how very stupid he is.

skippythekangaroo.bsky.social•27 days ago

I agree w you.

musicalnuke.bsky.social•27 days ago

Now you've done it. He's about to slap your new book (you can pre-order now) with a Scalzi-tariff.

teamquimby.bsky.social•27 days ago

I know it is psychologically more comforting to assign strategy but reality is we elected a drunken gorilla with a machine gun to be president.

tepidlatte.bsky.social•27 days ago

He's the distraction. His handlers want all attention on him, so the crazier his antics, the better. He's fully unleashed and flooding the zone with his frantic senile energy. Meanwhile, they're quietly laying the foundation of Gilead.

shademar.bsky.social•27 days ago

Strategy would frighten me more tbh.

teamquimby.bsky.social•27 days ago

It’s not like there’s a good scenario at this point

shademar.bsky.social•27 days ago

No, nope, not at all. But maybe the world can limit the damage the US can do by a tiny bit by sealing around it like a scab on an open wound.

Not optimistic.

ratchetology.bsky.social•27 days ago

tariff teretes

amie44.bsky.social•27 days ago

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tepidlatte.bsky.social•27 days ago

Chaos is the goal. While Emperor Thimblemitts runs around kicking over the furniture and setting the drapes on fire, the actual architects of this fascist regime continue to push their agenda, out of sight.

koboldcurrychef.bsky.social•27 days ago

When you have a hammer, as the saying goes.

jtoleary.bsky.social•26 days ago

Distraction is definitely a favorite tool in his ttoolboxhishapy place s media focused on some ultra stupid idea that he won't execute while he screws us bigly. The big distraction is making us think he's a complete idiot completely evil,yes!

nixfan.bsky.social•26 days ago

So he is a little like the Knights Who Say Nee, except it is tariff instead

poohbearcorner.bsky.social•26 days ago

#Trump #American general & #economic #strategy = a #Polo-mint.

That is:

A Large WHITE crunchy WALL on the outside [border, tariffs, isolator]

Plus:
A COMPLETELY conceptually empty CENTRAL BIT , consisting of a law & rule free moral vacuum occupied by amoral oligarchs & the downtrodden masses

adambirnbaum.bsky.social•26 days ago

See also: pretending to want to conquer Greenland, a place he could not identify on a map or tell you anything about.

karpatitude.bsky.social•26 days ago

I think there’s a strategy, I just don’t think it’s his. In a way I’d feel better if we’d got in this state through bad luck, somehow it would feel more fixable.
On the other hand him running around yelling like a toddler who just learnt a rude word is funny

skippile.bsky.social•27 days ago

He's just a thin skinned bully who wants to show that he's "tough" with public displays of cruelty. As soon as there's enough of an uproar over these idiotic tariffs from important donors who are losing money he'll recind them and claim victory in getting a better deal with the Colombian government.

elizabethess.bsky.social•27 days ago

It’s really him being distracted by any stupid choice available to him. This dude loves gimmicks (and grifts and hoodwinks and dastardly dalliances)

hopefulme2.bsky.social•26 days ago

He’s an idiot. Or a moron. Which is dumber? He’s that. 🤫

b0bsmith.bsky.social•27 days ago

Meanwhile, still no discussion on any plans to lower prices and cut energy bills in half for the American people.

ladygaia.bsky.social•27 days ago

I assume it's largely because the Executive's unilateral powers are limited – and tariffs are one of the strange outliers that Congress decided to begin delegating to the President starting in the 1930s. "When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

mmahaffie.bsky.social•27 days ago

Running? Surely you speak figuratively, sir?

probablynotarobot.bsky.social•27 days ago

Gods, how I wish that were true.

warbirdblue.bsky.social•27 days ago

Oh good one! 👍

sachikarla.bsky.social•27 days ago

His goal is for everyone on Earth to die, cuz he’s mad he’s gonna/ and that everyone will cheer. And party. Like when the WICKED WITCH WAS DEAD. In OZ.

cathshaffer.bsky.social•26 days ago

We know there is always going to be more than one thing going on. It's geopolitics, not a violin solo.

stevebuchheit.bsky.social•26 days ago

Ah, people are back on the "it's all a distraction" bullshit again. It's so 2017 of these people.

daftphully.bsky.social•27 days ago

That's the re- taking of the Panama Canal.

random-seed.bsky.social•27 days ago

He is getting attention, which is always at least one of his desired outcomes.

wantofaname.bsky.social•26 days ago

This emperor has no clothes...

tonnaree.bsky.social•27 days ago

This always happens when he learns something new.

kyle82much.bsky.social•26 days ago

Not to mention he misspelled Colombia

mayhemmayhap.bsky.social•26 days ago

He's no genius, his opposition is just that much more failson.

A unified & determined opposition is more reliable than counting on 47 to make an error he can't recover from.

dbgbdwolf.bsky.social•27 days ago

s/running/waddling/

rusty.zcx.cc•26 days ago

This is where we take the idea from "The President's Brain is Missing" and tell them 'Send it.'

sirbearclaw.bsky.social•27 days ago

Replace the word "tariff" with "jihad" and it's clearly a "war" on anyone who disagree with him.

gubbbo.bsky.social•27 days ago

People always want to believe he's playing 4d chess

tepidlatte.bsky.social•27 days ago

Oh please. He can't fucking spell "chess."

textualdeviance.bsky.social•27 days ago

And that his violence against marginalized people is just a "distraction" from his true goal of making broke white people more broke.

He's a self-obsessed, violent bigot with the impulse control of a nap-deprived toddler. He's not doing anything rationally.

wordweaverpro.bsky.social•27 days ago

It was negotiation and it worked. Minor detail.

torsade.bsky.social•27 days ago

They're high. They're going to keep smacking themselves until they break down crying. Then they'll sit on the floor wailing, "Everyone hates us!"

fionataylor.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yeah, he’s not strategic. He’s chaotic.

gnarlygeek.bsky.social•27 days ago

I think we have very different concepts of "running around"?

spydermayhem.bsky.social•27 days ago

The Red Queen's masterful plan to... ????

mtdave.bsky.social•27 days ago

Reports are he did it from the freaking golf course.

kbrenchley.bsky.social•27 days ago

He’s not going to step down in four years.

mikereinholz777.bsky.social•27 days ago

Every choice he makes is quid pro quo. He's not just dipping his beak, he's filling up a tanker truck.

mr-pig.bsky.social•27 days ago

It's a distinction without a difference. He gets what he wants through tantrums, whether he has the actual power to do so or not.

He's going to throw a tantrum like this until he's sure he can get the military to do what he wants.

Then it won't be a tantrum anymore.

margo-charchuk.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yeah but it’s not funny if you live in Canada and keep hearing it. Make him just go away please.

verasev.bsky.social•27 days ago

It's a way to further impoverish at risk Americans while allowing what revenue that does come from it to get put into his pockets and the pockets of his billionaire friends.

kevinonbluesky.bsky.social•27 days ago

Hey rest of world:
Sanction America. No travel from Americans effective March 1st. No new business from us effective April 1st. Freeze our assets effective the second we threaten Greenland Gaza.

Call Trump on his bullying. Make him eat his America first breakfast and see where we are by June.

scottwhitegloves.bsky.social•27 days ago

No, he's running around the 9th hole doing it. SRSLY.

theaggrocraigg.bsky.social•27 days ago

I deeply & sincerely believe that “tariff” is the only word he remembers from elementary social studies class and uses it as a response to everything like a kid writing it for every answer on a test they didn’t study for.

jwbfat16.bsky.social•26 days ago

Does anyone believe that DJT thought up these fiats? The Project 2025 people just shovel stuff under his Sharpie.

jwbfat16.bsky.social•26 days ago

But Columbia did let the planes land, non? It'll have to be an exporter to the US that does not cave to the threat.

mrthesaw.bsky.social•27 days ago

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/14/1698503/-Doonesbury-nailed-it-41-years-ago

pankylosaurus.bsky.social•26 days ago

Not to mention he neither knows nor cares what a tariff is.

niledv.bsky.social•25 days ago

claydowling.bsky.social•27 days ago

Indeed, there is nothing to indicate he's capable of formulating anything resembling a plan. My cat (who is not a clever cat) is capable of more advanced planning.

mwm11235.bsky.social•26 days ago

His Project 2025 puppet-masters are the source of the strategy and planning, not Trump himself.

rangerrick.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yeah, like, did everyone forget what his first term was like??

He only ever did two things: 1) randomly react to something on Fox News, and 2) something one of his cronies suggested he do.

Only difference this time is he has smarter cronies whispering heritage foundation crap in his ear.

zievarrenna.bsky.social•27 days ago

zespiole.bsky.social•26 days ago

Oh dear. Got the image carved in my mind now 🤣🤣.
I added his arms lifted horizontally, mimicking a plane 😁😁

isomeme.bsky.social•27 days ago

You've heard of "stochastic terrorism"? Trump is "stochastic governance". Of course, while he draws the full attention of the media by running around screaming and waving his arms, quieter and more focused people are busy looting the treasury and consolidating power. He's our Zaphod Beeblebrox.

johnzanardelli.bsky.social•27 days ago

Too bad he can’t just disappear in a galaxy hopping spaceship.

Maybe if he funds Musk enough…

greg38589422.bsky.social•26 days ago

I thought the distraction gimmick was Greenland at first.

traestorm.bsky.social•27 days ago

He is but the Heritage Foundation folks who spent the last 4 years on P2025 are not. They pull the "Chatty Cathy" string and point him at a microphone or camera right before they put Executive Orders they don't want you to notice on his desk for him to sign.

mgocoder.bsky.social•27 days ago

He doesn't even know how tariffs work. He thinks Columbia has to pay a protection fee to import their goods now. He doesn't understand it just raises prices for Americans.