> The tariffs have the potential to drive tens of thousands of small- and medium businesses into bankruptcy, overnight.
That is their goal - to drive out the small and medium businesses so that the president's donors can swoop in with private capital offers to enrich themselves.
No it's not. He's just a very unintelligent person surrounded by sycophants. Trump almost certainly doesn't even have an ulterior motive here. He has loudly proclaimed for decades his belief that trade deficits are the same as a subsidy or giveaway to the other country.
I never said it was explicitly Trump's goal, just that it was (with his knowing or not, and him not knowing is much more concerning) the goal of his administration (the people who really run the economic policy) here.
I think that may be their goals, but also that the policy is not actually being driven by their goals. The tariff rates were calculated by trade deficits. That's it. That has "following stupid dictate from Dear Leader" written all over it.
That is their goal - to drive out the small and medium businesses so that the president's donors can swoop in with private capital offers to enrich themselves.