US Refunds $81bn in Trump Tariff Money After Court Ruling

So all those foreign countries who paid tariffs (according to Trump) will get their money back? 🤣

5 hours ago, NewGuy said:

Candide, countries other than America did not pay; Americans paid.

I know. I was being sarcastic! Hence the 😃!

Edited July 14Jul 14 by candide

In February, the Supreme Court blocked a significant portion of the additional tariffs, requiring the government to return money to companies that had already paid the challenged charges.

So will those companies that passed on the tariff fees to their customers now pass on the refund? Hmm?

The entire trade war that Trump started based on his near complete lack of understanding of how globalization works and the inherent ecosystems within it was a total failure from the very beginning.

Just one example of how he has begun isolating America from the rest of the world. The result is the exact opposite of what the goon promised.

What Washington doesn't understand is that it is not about who screams the loudest, it's about who the world can't function without. Canada has built themselves into the one country American can't cut out regardless of how reckless Trump behaves. They have total infrastructure integration, your iPhone uses Canadian hydroelectric power, your home is built with superior Canadian lumber, your car runs on Canadian oil, you can't replace all of that overnight.

In February a lumber mill in Illinois closed. Because Canadian lumber suddenly became too expensive, after Trump's tariff terrors. This wasn't a failing mill, this was a mill that had been running for 60 years, employing 300 families. It didn't die from Canadian competition, Trump killed it. It died from bad American policy.

There is no surge capacity to replace Canadian imports, even analysts on Fox Business admitted it could take a decade to rebuild domestic production. And even if rebuilt, will it be competitive? So instead of protecting American jobs, tariffs will do the opposite, they will make lumber unaffordable in the middle of a housing crisis, and while America is having a political meltdown, Canada was having a strategy meeting. Trump expected the usual script, retaliation, angry press conferences, maybe a new round of tariffs. Instead Canada did something no one saw coming, no shouting, no threats, no photo ops with fingerpointing, politicians stepped up to a podium and announced a 1 billion dollar support program for Canadian lumber companies. Every company taking the money had to commit to Canada's new 25 billion dollar domestic housing program, in other words America just gave us our own lumber back and we're going to use it to fuel a big housing bill. Thanks for the favor Trump!

Because of silly political grand standing a kitchen renovation that cost $30,000 a year ago, now costs $40,000. Not because there wasn't enough wood or steel but because of political theater in Washington. Multiply that by millions throughout America. Trump promised to fix the housing crisis, but instead he's destroying it. And he is contributing to massive inflation in the process, do not believe the government numbers they are entirely fake. I just returned from a few months in America and I can tell you that inflation is raging out of control right now as we speak.

If Canada, America's closest ally with the longest undefended border could openly defy US pressure, then the question becames avoidable for the rest of the world. What's stopping us from doing the same? Maybe we don't need American approval, China took notice, the EU took notice, so did Mexico. Many other countries did too. 

Trump is too dim to understand that Canada has infrastructure indispensability, you can't sanction a country when you run on their oil, you can't bully a partner when you run in their electricity. Canada won't beat America by force, they'll beat America with integration. America's grid was built using cheap Canadian electricity and America just proved it's willing to hurt its own people to make a political point.

American can no longer be counted upon for reliability and that's not a trade war, that is a trade crisis. America has a superpower credibility crisis. There's a moment during every empire is history when the mirror doesn't recognize the face staring back. August 1st was America's mirror moment, Trump thought he was teaching a lesson, instead Canada gave America a master class in independence.

The US is now the laughing stock of the world. Any credibility, integrity, trustworthiness, and trade that the world used to rely on, has disappeared. When the real numbers of the economy come out in the next 2 to 3 years, it will show them to be a Third World country run by unqualified power-hungry buffoons.

The refunds blowed a big hole in June federal budget by $120 billion. Will need more borrowing and will see the national debt ballooned. Already crossing $39 trillion in just a short 11/2 years from $34.48 trillion at the end of Biden's term. The national debt now is now 105% of the total US economy and a ticking time bomb. Still Trump is spending like a drunken sailor. He and his billionaire friends are sitting comfortably while the country suffer.