The Trump Presidency, Season 2

[Sid]

I wonder if export tariffs could be a good answer to the genius's tariffs in the Oval Office.
Like 20% export tariffs on everything that is shipped to the USA.. I mean we spoil useful resources to make goods to be shipped over there...

Damn I'm a genius too.

 

[Noodles]

Due to eggflation many Americans switched over to coloring potatoes this year.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/dining/easter-eggs-potatoes.html

This is not Samwise Approved.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

I wonder if export tariffs could be a good answer to the genius's tariffs in the Oval Office.
Like 20% export tariffs on everything that is shipped to the USA.. I mean we spoil useful resources to make goods to be shipped over there...

Damn I'm a genius too.

I think we need to have additional tariffs for countries that don't speak American! And a tariff on countries that don't give us their land!

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

Tariffs on stock purchases.

 

[Cristiano]

I have no words for this. None. Zero.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

I have no words for this. None. Zero.

The whole video is worth watching... Rachel did a great job:

 

[Govi]

The appalling thing is how much Navarro looks and sounds like a reasonable conservative (Fresh water?) economist when on Fox News, yet whenever I've seen him examined/interviewed by someone who actually knows their stuff, he breaks down completely into answers that sound like "Because I'm the daddy, that's why!" No reasoning, no evidence, just a declaration of authority. Ugh.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

The appalling thing is how much Navarro looks and sounds like a reasonable conservative (Fresh water?) economist when on Fox News, yet whenever I've seen him examined/interviewed by someone who actually knows their stuff, he breaks down completely into answers that sound like "Because I'm the daddy, that's why!" No reasoning, no evidence, just a declaration of authority. Ugh.

I call that an appeal to narcissism. It's an appeal to irrelevant authority, but they try to cite themselves as the authority. conspiracy wackjobs do this a lot "I read a lot of books on this! How dare you question me!"

 

[Free]

Cookiegate.

The Cabinet Secretary Who Wants His Cookies Freshly Baked

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum likes chocolate-chip cookies—preferably freshly baked and still warm.

This peculiar fact became the talk of the Department of Interior in recent weeks after his chief of staff, JoDee Hanson, made an unusual request of the political appointees in his office: Learn to regularly bake cookies for Burgum and his guests, using the industrial ovens at the department headquarters.

That request was not the only move by his team that has alarmed some Interior officials. Four people familiar with Burgum’s leadership, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, told The Atlantic that Burgum was focused on his status as the leader of a minor cabinet department and that those who ran his office repeatedly made unusual demands to his employees. His office leadership once instructed political appointees to act as servers for a multicourse meal. They also dispatched a U.S. Park Police helicopter for his personal transportation. On at least one occasion, a political appointee was told to remake the cookies because the batch was subpar, according to three people.

Some of the concerns have been elevated to senior White House officials, according to the sources. One person familiar with the behavior described Burgum as “Doug the diva.”

 

[Tigger]

Well Trump believes it will generate a revenue stream of trilion dollars... he for sure has no clue how many people can afford it. Or even why they would want to come to America in the first place.

BTW Cyprus is also offering citizenship for money, but a lot cheaper.

Anyway, presidency is the problem, because in his mind Trump is already King Donald I. of America - at least.

let's do the maths!

It's actually quite hard to get figures for people with $5 mil or above, 1 million seems to be the favourite thing to measure. But
according to 'Equity Atlas' in 2021 there are/were 3.6 million people with a net worth of over $5 million. But 3.28 million of them are already US citizens leaving about 320,000 people able to pay for the orange guys golden ticket. Although that would wipe out those with just the 5 million.

320,000 x 5,000,000 = 1.6 trillion (using short trillions)


side note I have no idea who equity atlas are and I wouldn't be surprised if the answers they gave me were AI generated. However I think I put more effort into getting an answer than Trump or any of his team.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

I am pretty sure you need to hang that line higher, because if somebody is worth above $5mn this can also mean "just" $6mn. And why should someone with that net woth spend 80% of his wealth on that citizenship then?

The sane border would be at least >= $10mn IMHO.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Canada is now open for in-the-shell egg imports from... Ukraine. The negotiations have been ongoing since 2019. The eggs will go into the food processing industry, but might hit shelves as well if market conditions change.

Since there is a shortage on American eggs due to the bird flu this comes in handy to fill some gaps.

Ukraine gets approval to export eggs to Canada

Farmers Forum staff OTTAWA —The Canadian market is now open to in-the-shell egg imports from the Ukraine. Canadian approval was granted April 1. Negotiations to allow the imports of shelled eggs and o

farmersforum.com

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

I've noticed right wing media is definitely very subdivided into what is aimed at different demographics. A lot of right wing media is aimed at rural good-ol-boys who are basically trying to say the tariffs are fine, don't ask them why. Just don't be disloyal to Trump!!!!

Wall Street Journal and other more "finance" based media is having a rough time... Because they KNOW the tariffs are really bad. They can't sugar coat it.... WSJ even said last time we did this it was a huge disaster. But I also notice they are careful about directly attacking Trump since they are scared of being branded as "liberal" or pissing off their base of right wing readers.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Trump being more delusional than ever...

 

[Noodles]

I am pretty sure you need to hang that line higher, because if somebody is worth above $5mn this can also mean "just" $6mn. And why should someone with that net woth spend 80% of his wealth on that citizenship then?

The sane border would be at least >= $10mn IMHO.

Also, is that number just people outside the US who are not already worth over $5mil?

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

I am pretty sure you need to hang that line higher, because if somebody is worth above $5mn this can also mean "just" $6mn. And why should someone with that net woth spend 80% of his wealth on that citizenship then?

The sane border would be at least >= $10mn IMHO.

This is really aimed at the super rich who can burn 5 mil for an extra US citizenship at ease. I think the only reason someone worth 10M or less would buy it is if their life depends on it. Like they are trying to escape a warzone and were denied refugee status but happened to have some cash.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

 

[Casey Pelous]

I am pretty sure you need to hang that line higher, because if somebody is worth above $5mn this can also mean "just" $6mn. And why should someone with that net woth spend 80% of his wealth on that citizenship then?

The sane border would be at least >= $10mn IMHO.

Realistically, more like $50M. After all, someone with $5M to burn is not planning to live in a dilapidated double-wide in Bumfuque, Louisiana nor is their vehicle of choice a rusted out Pinto.

Which raises another question; why are these folks with stratospheric net worth so eager to escape their home country to pull up stakes?

It starts to sound like a really tiny market of very rich people who, perhaps, have "legal problems."

 

[Khamon]

Realistically, more like $50M. After all, someone with $5M to burn is not planning to live in a dilapidated double-wide in Bumfuque, Louisiana nor is their vehicle of choice a rusted out Pinto.

ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha

Which raises another question; why are these folks with stratospheric net worth so eager to escape their home country to pull up stakes?

It starts to sound like a really tiny market of very rich Russians who, perhaps, have "legal problems."

fify

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Also, is that number just people outside the US who are not already worth over $5mil?

I think the kind of people who are likely to be most interested in these "gold cards" probably have their assets well hidden in offshore shell accounts. They probably don't want their local tax authorities or law enforcement to be able to look at their finances too closely, so they are unlikely to appear in these public rich lists.