They were buying that aluminium, transforming it and selling the resulting product for 10-100x the cost of it. For every dollar Canada loses from not selling aluminium to the US, the US loses a several times more.
And Canada has already found replacement buyers in Europe for it. When they realise their mistake the US will come crawling back for it and Canada will say “sorry, we’ve already got takers”
I am convinced that nobody in the Trump administration has any understanding of economics whatsoever. It’s like their entire understanding of prosperity comes from watching mob movies.
The premier of Manitoba advanced the idea that he’s doing that on purpose to enrich his billionaire friends. Have American consumers pay more for their products to cover the tariff, then a few months later the tariff is deemed illegal, then the big corporations get a refund which they do not pass back to the consumer.
IMO I think it’s a combination of people in his inner circle feeding him bad ideas, manipulating him into attacking Canada’s economy. Some in hopes that a collapse of Canada’s economy would allow them to turn it into a subservient resource colony, others because pushing away America’s closest ally serves Russia’s interest.
I don’t understand why people keep making up dumb shit about him having an intelligent agenda.
He is a pudding brained, narcissistic sociopath. The end. He just does whatever the most recent person who flatters him asked. That’s when he able to hold a thought long enough. You can see his mind wander in real time every time he talks.
He’s the dumb tool for lots of invested interests, and that’s one reason when he’s gone, the problems he facilitated won’t go away or be reversed any time soon.
Then explain how a pudding brained narcissistic sociopath managed to get himself elected as the commander in chief of the worlds most powerful army and economy in the world while simultaniously conducting widescale graft and corruption. Even if he isnt the brains behind the operation, he didnt trip, slip on the floor and accidentally fuck up into this level of success. Its calculated.
The narrative that he is a buffoon only serves to make people underestimate what him and those behind him can accomplish and look where thats gotten everyone.
The whole reason he is where he is boils down to the fact that he spent decades building a cult of personality, and he happens to be a world-class, shameless liar. It is the kind of trait you see in high-functioning psychopaths who can look you dead in the eye and invent reality on the spot.
Look at his actual track record. Every single business venture he has touched has cratered because he treats companies like cash cows to bleed dry, taking his cut and running right before the whole thing collapses. The genius businessman myth is total fiction. He is not a visionary operator. He is just a walking billboard for everything broken about American culture, where a massive chunk of the population is genuinely fine lighting their own lives on fire as long as they think the people they hate are getting hurt worse.
His entire M.O. is a constant loop of whining about being the victim while giving everyone else an excuse to be absolute garbage human beings. He built an entire movement out of spiteful, miserable assholes who were just waiting for someone to give them permission to lean into their worst impulses and call it fighting back.
Because winning elections has little to do with what policies you propose. This is something liberals at least struggle greatly to understand. It’s what gets the Democrats nominating unlikable unelectable candidates because they have an impressive resume and a website full of consultant-written policy papers. Voters know that no policy proposal survives election day, so what policies you’re running on means very little. What matters is your vision and general vibe. That’s what actually wins elections, not being the smartest or the most qualified. You can bitch and moan all you want about this reality, but it won’t change a damn thing.
Trump beat Clinton even though Clinton had a resume and intelligence that blew Trump’s out of the water. He did so because Clinton came across as unlikable and inauthentic. He had a vibe voters liked, Clinton didn’t.
He’s just really good at working a crowd. You could certainly see that in the beginning. He shamelessly and with great passion just spits out things he heard, be them true or not. Sometimes he gets a boo. That subject is dropped and when a reporter asks he’ll just flat out deny it was even mentioned. If something gets a reaction he runs with it. After some time he got a bunch of subjects that he could really hammer to make the crowd go wild and then he takes them national. And if those things don’t work in practice that’s a worry for another time.
Trump doesn’t have an intelligent agenda, but no one rules alone. The people backing, working for and/or advising him do have agendas, and some of those agendas are intelligent.
Have American consumers pay more for their products to cover the tariff, then a few months later the tariff is deemed illegal, then the big corporations get a refund which they do not pass back to the consumer.
It’s more devious than that. If you create a shortage the price of things increase. A 50% tariff is so unreasonable you may as well say you’re just not importing that product any more. Let’s say American companies control 90% of the market share of a product Canadian companies have 10%. Eliminate the Canadian products from the market, and there’s an instant shortage. Following the supply and demand model, prices increase on that 90% they produce. That price increase is pure profit.
Theoretically if the tariffs were permanent American companies would expand and eventually replace that missing 10% that used to be supplied by Canadian companies. But no one for a second believes any Trump policy is permanent so no one is investing anything to increase their production. So it’s just collecting extra profits while there’s an artificially created shortage.
But the timing of this makes me think that Trump actually expected Carney to cave. If he’s really to do some kind of “economic D-Day” (assuming that means tarriffs on countries that trade with Iran, but who knows?) it’s incredibly stupid to start a trade war with Canada at the same time. Also mid-term elections are coming up, so it’s really stupid to randomly start a trade war right now. So while there is incentive there for wealthy people to make money, I think this one is more about Trump just fucking up.
Squirrels bury nuts for winter. Granted, they often forget where but their solution is to bury so many they will inevitably find some again. This is a level of planning and self-understanding that is so far above Trump and his administrations head it might as well be an alien concept from a different galaxy.
So we will need you to apologize to the squirrels because your statement is highly insulting to them.
They’re all rich kids. Their entire life is first intimidate people with “do you know who my father is” and later on to threaten to sue people until the other side backs down or runs out of cash. It’s a lousy way to run a country but they don’t know anything else, and especially can’t deal when folks fight back successfully.
The administration’s appointees are half like that bully from the fancy prep school lisa simpson gets to go to, where the bully is beating on some kid saying, ‘new money always cries.’
They are aristrocratic, with classical educations, pretending to be dumb(er) for politics. Ie vance. He’s no man of the people, he’s a rich little tool that is playing the sheep.
They’re like the 5th grade bully who picks on 2nd graders. Until they finally pick on a 4th grader, gets punched in the face, whines that the 4th grader cheated or pulled a cheap shot, then goes to beat up a 3rd grader who kicked em square in the nuts, and now they’re going back to 2nd and 1st graders to prove how tough they are
They understand economics, they just don’t care about the USA. The point of tariffs is to insert chaos into investment markets so that insiders can profit with advance information of what Trump will do. Hence, there is war/not war every 5 days and tariffs go on and off weekly.
This is not about the best interest of the US economy. If Republicans cared about the US economy, they would work to make healthcare insurance affordable to companies with US labor, because that is the main reason jobs moved into Mexico and Canada.
This is actually perfect timing because Aughinish, the only alumina refinery in Europe IIRC, is under investigation for supplying the Russian military and there’s talk of shutting it down.
They were buying that aluminium, transforming it and selling the resulting product for 10-100x the cost of it. For every dollar Canada loses from not selling aluminium to the US, the US loses a several times more.
And Canada has already found replacement buyers in Europe for it. When they realise their mistake the US will come crawling back for it and Canada will say “sorry, we’ve already got takers”
I am convinced that nobody in the Trump administration has any understanding of economics whatsoever. It’s like their entire understanding of prosperity comes from watching mob movies.
The premier of Manitoba advanced the idea that he’s doing that on purpose to enrich his billionaire friends. Have American consumers pay more for their products to cover the tariff, then a few months later the tariff is deemed illegal, then the big corporations get a refund which they do not pass back to the consumer.
IMO I think it’s a combination of people in his inner circle feeding him bad ideas, manipulating him into attacking Canada’s economy. Some in hopes that a collapse of Canada’s economy would allow them to turn it into a subservient resource colony, others because pushing away America’s closest ally serves Russia’s interest.
I don’t understand why people keep making up dumb shit about him having an intelligent agenda.
He is a pudding brained, narcissistic sociopath. The end. He just does whatever the most recent person who flatters him asked. That’s when he able to hold a thought long enough. You can see his mind wander in real time every time he talks.
He’s the dumb tool for lots of invested interests, and that’s one reason when he’s gone, the problems he facilitated won’t go away or be reversed any time soon.
It’s not an intelligent agenda to steal money. Yes he’s a low iq moron but even raccoons can steal shiny coins.
And yet, he has grafted $5B in personal money and gets elected twice.
Then explain how a pudding brained narcissistic sociopath managed to get himself elected as the commander in chief of the worlds most powerful army and economy in the world while simultaniously conducting widescale graft and corruption. Even if he isnt the brains behind the operation, he didnt trip, slip on the floor and accidentally fuck up into this level of success. Its calculated.
The narrative that he is a buffoon only serves to make people underestimate what him and those behind him can accomplish and look where thats gotten everyone.
The whole reason he is where he is boils down to the fact that he spent decades building a cult of personality, and he happens to be a world-class, shameless liar. It is the kind of trait you see in high-functioning psychopaths who can look you dead in the eye and invent reality on the spot.
Look at his actual track record. Every single business venture he has touched has cratered because he treats companies like cash cows to bleed dry, taking his cut and running right before the whole thing collapses. The genius businessman myth is total fiction. He is not a visionary operator. He is just a walking billboard for everything broken about American culture, where a massive chunk of the population is genuinely fine lighting their own lives on fire as long as they think the people they hate are getting hurt worse.
His entire M.O. is a constant loop of whining about being the victim while giving everyone else an excuse to be absolute garbage human beings. He built an entire movement out of spiteful, miserable assholes who were just waiting for someone to give them permission to lean into their worst impulses and call it fighting back.
Because winning elections has little to do with what policies you propose. This is something liberals at least struggle greatly to understand. It’s what gets the Democrats nominating unlikable unelectable candidates because they have an impressive resume and a website full of consultant-written policy papers. Voters know that no policy proposal survives election day, so what policies you’re running on means very little. What matters is your vision and general vibe. That’s what actually wins elections, not being the smartest or the most qualified. You can bitch and moan all you want about this reality, but it won’t change a damn thing.
Trump beat Clinton even though Clinton had a resume and intelligence that blew Trump’s out of the water. He did so because Clinton came across as unlikable and inauthentic. He had a vibe voters liked, Clinton didn’t.
No? Voters know politicians lie, but political promises still do sway them a lot. Hillary failed to propose policies that attracted voters.
He’s just really good at working a crowd. You could certainly see that in the beginning. He shamelessly and with great passion just spits out things he heard, be them true or not. Sometimes he gets a boo. That subject is dropped and when a reporter asks he’ll just flat out deny it was even mentioned. If something gets a reaction he runs with it. After some time he got a bunch of subjects that he could really hammer to make the crowd go wild and then he takes them national. And if those things don’t work in practice that’s a worry for another time.
Trump doesn’t have an intelligent agenda, but no one rules alone. The people backing, working for and/or advising him do have agendas, and some of those agendas are intelligent.
It’s more devious than that. If you create a shortage the price of things increase. A 50% tariff is so unreasonable you may as well say you’re just not importing that product any more. Let’s say American companies control 90% of the market share of a product Canadian companies have 10%. Eliminate the Canadian products from the market, and there’s an instant shortage. Following the supply and demand model, prices increase on that 90% they produce. That price increase is pure profit.
Theoretically if the tariffs were permanent American companies would expand and eventually replace that missing 10% that used to be supplied by Canadian companies. But no one for a second believes any Trump policy is permanent so no one is investing anything to increase their production. So it’s just collecting extra profits while there’s an artificially created shortage.
But the timing of this makes me think that Trump actually expected Carney to cave. If he’s really to do some kind of “economic D-Day” (assuming that means tarriffs on countries that trade with Iran, but who knows?) it’s incredibly stupid to start a trade war with Canada at the same time. Also mid-term elections are coming up, so it’s really stupid to randomly start a trade war right now. So while there is incentive there for wealthy people to make money, I think this one is more about Trump just fucking up.
He’s got the intelligence and long term planning of a squirrel going for that one acorn in the middle of the dog park.
Squirrels bury nuts for winter. Granted, they often forget where but their solution is to bury so many they will inevitably find some again. This is a level of planning and self-understanding that is so far above Trump and his administrations head it might as well be an alien concept from a different galaxy.
So we will need you to apologize to the squirrels because your statement is highly insulting to them.
So you’re saying they… “Flood the zone”?
*Premier of Manitoba, Wab Kinew.
Premier is the head of our provincial (akin to a state) governments, Our Prime minister is the head of Canada. (like the United States president)
They’re all rich kids. Their entire life is first intimidate people with “do you know who my father is” and later on to threaten to sue people until the other side backs down or runs out of cash. It’s a lousy way to run a country but they don’t know anything else, and especially can’t deal when folks fight back successfully.
The administration’s appointees are half like that bully from the fancy prep school lisa simpson gets to go to, where the bully is beating on some kid saying, ‘new money always cries.’
They are aristrocratic, with classical educations, pretending to be dumb(er) for politics. Ie vance. He’s no man of the people, he’s a rich little tool that is playing the sheep.
They’re all a bunch of reality tv stars and media personalities. This is just show bizz to them, not governing.
They’re like the 5th grade bully who picks on 2nd graders. Until they finally pick on a 4th grader, gets punched in the face, whines that the 4th grader cheated or pulled a cheap shot, then goes to beat up a 3rd grader who kicked em square in the nuts, and now they’re going back to 2nd and 1st graders to prove how tough they are
accurate, except these pissants clearly didn’t make it past kindergarten.
They understand economics, they just don’t care about the USA. The point of tariffs is to insert chaos into investment markets so that insiders can profit with advance information of what Trump will do. Hence, there is war/not war every 5 days and tariffs go on and off weekly.
This is not about the best interest of the US economy. If Republicans cared about the US economy, they would work to make healthcare insurance affordable to companies with US labor, because that is the main reason jobs moved into Mexico and Canada.
Well some of them do like Bessent and Lutnick but they also understand they can make billions shutting the fuck up and taking bribes instead.
This is actually perfect timing because Aughinish, the only alumina refinery in Europe IIRC, is under investigation for supplying the Russian military and there’s talk of shutting it down.
EDIT: actually nvm
https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2026/07/24/aughinish-alumina-investigation-makes-no-adverse-findings-against-co-limerick-plant/