Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
United States Apple

Trump: Apple Building in China is 'Unsustainable,' Could Exempt Some Companies From Tariffs (macrumors.com) 224

Posted by msmash from the fluid-situation dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Following U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to pause some of the exorbitant tariffs that he put in place earlier today, he spoke to the press at the White House and provided some commentary that could be a positive for Apple. When asked whether he would consider exempting some U.S. companies from the tariffs in the future, Trump said that he would. "As time goes by, we're going to take a look at it," he said. "There are some that by the nature of the company get hit a little bit harder, and we'll take a look at that," he added, claiming that he will "show a little flexibility."

[...] When speaking to the press, Trump reiterated his aim of bringing manufacturing to the United States, and he claimed that Apple "building" in China is unsustainable. "If you look at Apple, Apple is going to spend $500 billion building a plant. They wouldn't be doing that if I didn't do this. They'd just keep building them in China. And that's unsustainable," he said.

Trump: Apple Building in China is 'Unsustainable,' Could Exempt Some Companies From Tariffs More | Reply

Trump: Apple Building in China is 'Unsustainable,' Could Exempt Some Companies From Tariffs

Comments Filter:

  • iPhones from Indian and Vietnamese factories are subject to a 10% tariff while those from Chinese factories are at 125%. How can they set a retail price?

    • Re: Apple is in an impossibel situation (Score:4, Insightful)

      by fluffernutter ( 1411889 ) on Thursday April 10, 2025 @05:14AM (#65294295)
      Obviously they need to produce as much as they can in the less expensive countries and average out the costs across all iPhones.
    • Sell Indian-made and Vietnamese-made phones in the US, China-made ones elsewhere? Price accordingly. US tariffs don't hit products that aren't delivered there.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Zocalo ( 252965 )
      They import phones from the Indian and Vietnamese factories to the US like crazy while the 90 pause is in-effect to build up stock. Everyone else gets to divide up the output from the Chinese factories, with whatever tariffs etc. are currently in place between China and their destination. If nothing else changes, then in 90 days when the tariff pause ends they start running down the imported stock in the US and, when that's gone, they absorb whatever portion of the 10% tariffs from India and Vietnam they

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by shilly ( 142940 )

        There is no way that Indian and Vietnamese made iPhones are available in the quantities required to supply the US market. It's 50 tons of iPhones per day! The volumes are mind-boggling. Additionally, Apple doesn't have secure warehouses to stores billions of dollars of iPhone inventory, not least because holding inventory is extremely expensive, and Apple has spent multiple years leaning out its inventory management to reduce the need to hold stock. Plus costs of production in China will be substantially lo

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Zocalo ( 252965 )
          Probably not, but you're assuming that USians will still be able to buy iPhones at the current rate. The sticker price is going up by circa 10% because of the minimal rate tariff, and more that than if they do need to supplement the US inventory from China as you suggest, which I agree will be quite likely, but they can average out the price of the tariffs across the total inventory, so it won't be the 125% hike if every phone had to come from China. That hike alone is going to make more USians keep their

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by leonbev ( 111395 )

          Apple knows how to play this game, though. They could produce mostly complete iPhones in China, and them ship them to India or Vietnam to be boxed up and shipped out with a "Made in Vietnam" label.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by shilly ( 142940 )

            I assume they will be exploring rules of origin. But the phrase "rules of origin" itself is an assumption, about a rules-based world. And if we -- and Apple -- have learned one thing in the past few days, it's that Trump and his administration truly are moving the US from being a rules-based world to a ruler-based world, where everything depends on whim and one's standing in the king's court.

        • There may not be enough iPhones, but there are also not enough Samsung phones, so they both can just increase their US prices and Americans either pay or donâ(TM)t get new high-end phones.

        • You think Apple can't lease a few warehouses to dodge a 125% tariff?

          You think that they can't figure that one out?

      • Apple sells a new model of phone every year. That puts limits on how much stockpiling they can do.

        I have no idea how much iPhones will go up, but it is less than 10%. Not all of the price of an iPhone is material goods. There is intellectual property which probably can be added in after the fact. I think it is also not the retail price that matters, it is the import price (equivalent to wholesale?). So a $!000 iPhone might only be charged for $300 of import value (so $30 at 10% in my example). Of course, at

        • Apple also owns their release cadence. If they find it worthwhile to slow that cadence in order to not have to double their pricing, that's what they're going to do.

          You're not just going to see them doing that, either. I wouldn't be surprised if we see the entire PC industry slam the brakes on releases until this shit gets handled permanently.

    • Apple’s Fashion Problem. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Thursday April 10, 2025 @05:40AM (#65294317)

      How can they set a retail price?

      Uh, probably pretty damn easily given their foreign costs anywhere and the current (read: fashionable) markup-pricing they already enjoy. Consumers have been subject to Apple fixed pricing and overpricing for decades now.

      Apple survived and thrived because they became more a fashion company selling tech. Problem for them is everyone makes that tech now. So they better hope and pray they remain fashionable enough for consumers to support their margins and stock price. Needless to say overpriced tech goods in a pseudo-recession sell about as well as bibles in a brothel, or DNA tests in divorce court.

      • No company is going to see it that way. They answer to boards who only want to see the profit increase. No one on the board is going to say, oh yeah we have been taking advantage of people for a long time now so time to stop that and make 50% of what I am used to. Companies like Walmart are *saying* they will keep low prices but they will just let them creep in slower so the customers don't notice them as much. No company will take the hit for Trump's whims. Except for Musk's companies, because Musk we

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dfghjk ( 711126 )

        "Problem for them is everyone makes that tech now. "
        LOL wut? Now? A fashion company is not differentiated by tech, but by fashion, you dolt.

        "So they better hope and pray they remain fashionable enough for consumers to support their margins and stock price."
        You think Apple, as a "fashion company", lucked into being fashionable? Do you understand what being a "fashion company" means? Clearly you do not.

        "Needless to say overpriced tech goods in a pseudo-recession sell about as well as bibles in a brothel,

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The ones "made" in India and Vietnam are more like assembled there, from components shipped from China and Taiwan. They don't have LCD factories or high end fabs in those countries, at least not yet.

      Does Apple want an exemption though? They must feel lucky that China didn't take more extreme measures over US attacks on Huawei. They banned Apple products for government use, but if Apple got a tariff exemption the next step would probably be to just ban Apple products, or add a reciprocal export tax on them.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      The sane thing would be to stop selling in the US completely. Yes, about 35% of their profits are from US sales, but an extremely unstable market is going to cost them money.

    • They can ship iPhones from India/Vietnam to the US and sell those built in China elsewhere, e.g. in the EU. This would avoid these tariffs. Not sure if the production volumes of these factories match this strategy, though.

    • So they do 90% of the assembly in China, and send them to Vietnam for the last 10%. Poof, Vietnam assembled, Vietnam tariff.

      Car manufacturers have been doing that for decades.

  • From Apple's perspective (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Thursday April 10, 2025 @05:38AM (#65294315)

    Their options a) Pay peanuts to make iPhones in other countries and suffer tariffs until Trump changes his mind (again) but otherwise nothing changes, b) Spend billions building hugely expensive plant and supply chains in the US and suffer permanently higher costs c) make noises pretending they'll do option b until Trump leaves office or dies at which point quietly cancel those plans.

    I expect they'll do c). As will every other company in the headlights right now.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ukoda ( 537183 )

      Their options a) Pay peanuts to make iPhones in other countries and suffer tariffs until Trump changes his mind (again) but otherwise nothing changes, b) Spend billions building hugely expensive plant and supply chains in the US and suffer permanently higher costs c) make noises pretending they'll do option b until Trump leaves office or dies at which point quietly cancel those plans.

      I expect they'll do c). As will every other company in the headlights right now.

      Add an option d) Halt sales in the USA when the existing stock runs out but continue selling in other countries at the regular price.

      It would be too risky for most companies to try that, but because there is a cult like following of customers in the USA who want the iPhone more as a fashion statement than because of its technology, they might be able to pull it off. You are talking a similar customer base to Tic Tok and trump has given repeated extensions to stop it being blocked as he knows the fall ou

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DrXym ( 126579 )

        Apple is appealing massive fines in Europe so they'll kiss Trump's ass to get his backing. But ultimately they see him the way everyone else does - an abject incompetent fool who'll be out of the picture in 3 years and possibly a lame duck president in 18 months.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Zocalo ( 252965 )
          Trump might be out of the Oval Office in 3.75 years, but if you think he's going to magically cede his control of the MAGA part of the GOP at the same time you're deluding yourself. He technically had no official position in the GOP during Biden's tenure as POTUS, nor did he contribute much funding to the GOP to help buy that power, and we all know how that turned out for GOP policies and how they tried to cripple almost everything the DEMs tried to achieve.

          There are two ways Trump gets out of US politi
        • These âoemassive finesâ are nothing compared to the new tariffs.

    • Look, folks, let me tell you something very importantâ"very, very important. Companies, these big companies, they play games. Total games. They say theyâ(TM)re going to build hereâ"big plants, beautiful factories, jobs for Americansâ"and then what do they do? They wait. They stall. They hope I go away. They bet on Sleepy Joe or someone worse to come in and let them go right back to shipping jobs overseas. Total disgrace.

      Thatâ(TM)s why we need four more years, maybe even eight. Maybe

    • Their options a) Pay peanuts to make iPhones in other countries and suffer tariffs until Trump changes his mind (again) but otherwise nothing changes, b) Spend billions building hugely expensive plant and supply chains in the US and suffer permanently higher costs c) make noises pretending they'll do option b until Trump leaves office or dies at which point quietly cancel those plans.

      I expect they'll do c). As will every other company in the headlights right now.

      You forgot option D) Grovel at the feet of the King to get special dispensation to lift the tariffs just for the special chosen people.

      I'm pretty sure that's what Trump's public statement of "we'll look at that" means. He means, if somebody pays homage, and probably money, directly to him, he'll think about removing tariffs just for them. Gotta bow to the King, baby. Ego is his main driver, and you either serve it, or get slapped.

    • Why the US? Find a cheaper country that has no or lower tariffs and the game resets... Wack a mole... This is not 2D chess, not 3D, but 47D thinking and trump is making slices to understand it all. Good luck Donald, sometimes there are things you just cannot comprehend.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by jvkjvk ( 102057 )

      I agree, we will see plans for plants 5 - 10 years out, which will end up like the Foxcon plant in Wisconsin at best.

      Most will stop at the planning exercises, which is the cheap part. You need to survey for a site you see. That could take a year or so, at least...Decide on your automated plant design (these things won't be hiring manufacturing workers), another year or two. Bid it out to contractors with contract revisions, 1 year.

      All taking as much sweet time as necessary to never build the plant. Because

    • They already looked at B. It can't be done. They said they can't get very basic things here in the US in the quantity they need - and I'm not talking about custom fabbed silicon or some special battery; we're talking about screws. Dumb, boring old screws.

      The decay of manufacturing in this country isn't something that can be solved in a single Presidential term, no matter who it is. It will take a sustained program of incentives and investment, not threats and lunacy that threatens to crash the bond mark

  • Right nuts (Score:3, Insightful)

    by fluffernutter ( 1411889 ) on Thursday April 10, 2025 @06:14AM (#65294349)
    At least when Donald Trump's term is over, we'll be able to remind right nuts that Trump tried it their way and it failed horribly.

    • Re:Right nuts (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Fons_de_spons ( 1311177 ) on Thursday April 10, 2025 @06:40AM (#65294385)
      The denial is strong in them. The core believers will just find something to blame. It is in their nature. It did not work because those libtards were sabotaging everything. Simple black and white thinking with very thick and tough layers of rationalizations. "Yes, the nukes were launched by Trump and wiped out half of the US, but overpopulation was getting bad. Also housing prices are going to drop in 10 000 years. Rebuilding the US will be great for the economy and will ensure local jobs! It had to be done to make America great again.

      • Re: Right nuts (Score:2, Insightful)

        by letnes ( 10152707 )
        You cannot use reasoning and logic to convince them that his plans are stupid and will lead to very bad things . We need to just see this through so they can see the results for themselves. If we keep saying itâ(TM)s going to end badly and doing things to mitigate the results they will just say everything would have been great if the libs hadnâ(TM)t stopped the great plans. Then they will elect someone else who will convince them that their lives are shit because the libs prevented Trump from fi

    • Re:Right nuts (Score:5, Insightful)

      by locofungus ( 179280 ) on Thursday April 10, 2025 @06:40AM (#65294387)

      At least when Donald Trump's term is over, we'll be able to remind right nuts that Trump tried it their way and it failed horribly.

      That's not how it works. For the true believers, belief trumps facts and the reason it failed will be one of:

      It wasn't done right.
      It wasn't done enough.
      It was blocked by the dems.
      It was undermined by the wokerati.
      It was hindered by the elite.

      Every single time it's the same, and it's why you cannot pander to their views. From immigration to climate change, the only response to "moving half way" is for the irrational to move even further into nutjob territory.

      You cannot reason because they're beyond reason.

      • The day we stop caring, Trump will die from starvation. "Breaking news! Trump threatens to push the nuke button unless the entire world pays 5$/person/year for using the internet." Trump: "The US invented the magnificent internet and the whole world is using it to make money. Did they ever say thank you? No, they didn't. Did they ever pay back some of the money we invested? No, they did not. It is time for action. No more...." Switches channel....

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by serviscope_minor ( 664417 )

      It doesn't work like that.

      Either Trump didn't do it hard enough and that's why you need the next, even more insane person, or it was the fault of Hunter Biden's laptop, Barack HUSSEIN Obama, Hillary's emails, the deep state and the ultra liberal left wing globalist woke Marxist billionaire capitalist ((financiers)) which is why Trump needs that third term.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      We could have done that before. As these morons are deep in denial, it will do nothing though. I expect they will come up with a "Dolchstosslegende" or some other lie to justify why it was not the fault of their messiah.

      • Clearly some of the Trump followers aren't doing much critical thinking. However, I know many "Conservatives" that voted for Trump do think critically and don't just believe everything President Trump is great. He is not a deity for them.

        On another note, the Democrats also behave the same way in many cases.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dfghjk ( 711126 )

      The Trump term will never be over. Trump is not leaving the White House except in a body bag. You still don't get it.

    • Re:Right nuts (Score:5, Interesting)

      by gtall ( 79522 ) on Thursday April 10, 2025 @07:58AM (#65294465)

      That will be too late. There never was an end-game to la Presidenta's tariffs. He'd just been talking about them for years, like a teenager pining for a motorcycle, and decided he could now get them. So he and the Maggots had an orgamistic orgy over finally getting them. And like the teenager who wrecks the cycle, and sustained maybe life-long injuries, he isn't so hot on them. However, he cannot back down totally and admit he's wrong which means that he will continue to drag the U.S. into the ditch, but not quite as fast. The "accident" was because...

      the bond market showed up and said, "yoo-hoo, look at the yields!". Those bond yields of U.S treasuries spiked. That was bond investors, the ones funding the U.S. debt, getting nervous. That spiraled until it became clear they were also questioning whether the U.S. was good for its debt. That meant that the dollar's reserve currency status was becoming suspect. That also meant that the debt la Presidenta intends to run up with extending his ill-conceived tax cuts (from his last alleged administration) would be even more unsustainable. And that meant that he could not reward the billionaires who funded his campaign and thought they were buying influence. Pissing them off could tank another part of his alleged presidency....well, even more so than he's already doing....the manufacturing economy; they aren't going to invest in new plants for an economy that is tanking.

      There is another problem la Presidenta ran into: how do you get tariff/trade agreements with 72 countries in a short enough time to reduce the tariffs so they do not tank household income. Getting even one of those agreements can take years. He doesn't have the personnel to do that for two reasons: (1) he hired people just as dense as he is about how the world economy works (which he's only now dimly perceiving, very dimly since he has little more than smashed turnips up there to work with), and (2) no one of merit will sign on to his alleged administration because they do not want to work with a bunch of dolts, and knowing that whatever agreements they reach can be abrogated by la Presidenta because the moon, the sun, that funny star, etc., whatever.

      And now U.S. credibility is damaged for every country who used to be a U.S. ally and will never trust the U.S. again not vote in a similar idiot. And, worse for him, he looks like the weak, pathetic "leader" those of us who had our eyes open knows he is.

    • At least when Donald Trump's term is over, we'll be able to remind right nuts that Trump tried it their way and it failed horribly.

      That's not what will happen. I lived through the Reagan era and I liked Reagan, but this is nothing like that and it's not like anything I've ever seen. About 40% of American voters are in what I call The Cult Of Donald Trump. My best friend is what I might describe as a John McCain type Republican but his wife is like a clone of Majorie Taylor Greene. He admits to being exasperated by her. She's fully in that 40% of voters in the cult. You need to understand that they honestly think Trump has n

    • Like in 2021 you mean?

      This is literally the second time they've elected him and his support has barely wavered in the three elections he's been in. The only major difference with 2020 was that he was so bad the independents actually got off their asses for once and voted against him.

      Repeat it again: This is what conservatives want. They don't give a shit about whether the country is collapsing, as long as they hurt a bunch of people they don't like for no apparent reason.

  • Another excuse for corruption (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JoshuaZ ( 1134087 ) on Thursday April 10, 2025 @06:35AM (#65294375) Homepage
    This is essentially identical to the targeted shakedowns of lawfirms that Trump is doing. He now can exempt specific companies from tariffs if they do things for him. This is blatant corruption, but because the Supreme Court has ruled that he cannot be prosecuted for any official acts, he's completely free to do this.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jd ( 1658 )

      You're correct. It also violates WTO rules but the Republicans are actively blocking the WTO from operating.

      Sovereign immunity is a dangerous game. Although the Magna Carta has long since ceased to be a factor in law, it did actually address the specific problem of sovereign immunity, proposing a special court for the sole purpose of trying those with such immunity, preventing bogus lawsuits but also providing a way to hold such people to account.

      The US has attempted to use Congress for this, but we've now

    • Re:Another excuse for corruption (Score:5, Insightful)

      by dfghjk ( 711126 ) on Thursday April 10, 2025 @08:06AM (#65294473)

      Well, the Constitution is nothing more than law, and the "greatest" interpreter of the Constitution now says the President is immune from the law. How can that be? The President only exists because of the Constitution. This is the "deep" thinking of our Federalist Society originalist big brains.

      If it weren't so serious, it would be really enjoyable seeing Roberts squirm and whine about judicial impeachment threats now. That's right bitch, he'll come after you. too. It's how fascism works, you're job is done, now you're just in the way.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Mitreya ( 579078 )

      because the Supreme Court has ruled that he cannot be prosecuted for any official acts

      Are you saying that previous presidents could be prosecuted for official acts?
      Because there are a lot of prior presidential acts (e.g., bombings or drone strikes) that say otherwise.

  • $500 Billion? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by newslash.formatblows ( 2011678 ) on Thursday April 10, 2025 @06:42AM (#65294389)
    I assume this is just more orange bullshit. What kind of plant costs half the US defense budget?

  • Only slightly related (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Can'tNot ( 5553824 ) on Thursday April 10, 2025 @06:49AM (#65294399)
    This is only tangentially related to the topic, but the Prime Minister of Singapore recently gave a speech on the tariffs that I thought was particularly well considered. Seems like it's worth a link [pmo.gov.sg].

  • The orange clown has no clue... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Thursday April 10, 2025 @07:10AM (#65294415)

    ... as to the damage he is doing. International trade has long lead-times due to shipment and even longer ones due to establishing manufacturing capacities. His crazy back-and-fort dance is destroying all predictability of selling in the US. Many will stop, to the detriment of the US consumers. Many will just raise prices drastically, to the detriment of the average US consumer. In any case, the damage has already been done and even if he retracts all tariffs today, it will take a decade or two to undo it. If he clowns around cluelessly some more (as he will), that time and the damage done, increases.

    Trump does not seem to understand international trade at all.

    • Re:The orange clown has no clue... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by dfghjk ( 711126 ) on Thursday April 10, 2025 @08:16AM (#65294487)

      Trump is a sociopath, he doesn't think he's doing any damage, he's "making money". The world can burn so long as his property doesn't. Remember what he said about 9//11, the buildings falling means that now the tallest buildings are his. That wasn't true, but for Trump the only tragedy is when he loses personally. COVID was a good thing when he believed it would kill New Yorker democrats.

      Whining about the damage done is just a loser's lament. There will be no regret and it will not result in more restraint next time. Trump's great ideas come from Putin, damage like this is precisely what Putin wants.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by shilly ( 142940 )

      Of course he doesn't. The iPhone has possibly the most complex supply chain of any consumer electronic product. It contains dozens of raw materials, and many of those are each sourced from dozens of countries. For just tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold, there are about 200 refiners and smelters across 79(!!) countries. The scale and complexity of the supply chain is just completely beyond his comprehension, and the comprehension of the fucking idiots in his team who tried to make an equation sciencey by put

      • The iPhone has possibly the most complex supply chain of any consumer electronic product.

        Why would it be any more complex than any other cellphone that does all the same shit? Why would it be any more complex than a car (they are "software defined" now don't you know, that makes them an "electronic product") which has a more complex computer than an iPhone in the dash, plus a bunch of other computers, all of which are wrapped in a car?

        With that said, Trump knows what he's doing as much as he knows anything. He's manipulating the market and destroying the government. Those are the goals he came

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by shilly ( 142940 )

          A few reasons:
          The root cause is that compared to other smartphones, the iPhone has had very high margins. To achieve that, Apple has focused on really impressive supply chain management and of course the gigantic scale brings economies. Running the supply chain really tight to manage inventory down, managing a giant supplier base for costs & resilience & quality & other issues, etc -- Apple does a better job than anyone else at this, and a big part of how it achieve that was through allowing the

        • The iPhone has possibly the most complex supply chain of any consumer electronic product.

          Why would it be any more complex than any other cellphone that does all the same shit?

          Beacuse, ... ready for it? ... Apple is more EVIL than other cellphone manufacturers!!!

    • Here's a rare beam of light through the dark clouds though: the bond market showed us that he's willing to cave if US Treasuries are threatened.

      That's what backed him down - yields on 10-year notes spiking half a percent from Japan starting to unload their US Treasury notes.

      Thank you, Japan, for putting pressure where it needed to be applied. That move got a lot of advisors in his ear telling him that if US Treasuries take a hit, there's no recovery. That breaks the back of the US economy and starts the d

  • Laws should be for everyone (Score:3)

    by olddoc ( 152678 ) on Thursday April 10, 2025 @08:16AM (#65294485)
    No! The USA should pass laws that apply to everyone. It should not be the government's job to pick and choose who gets an exception to a law. That is how you get corruption. If I have a company that is hurt by tariffs I shouldn't be able to send my corporate jet to take the president to my golf course and get him to exempt my company from the tariffs.

    • This opinion article [wapo.st] (Washington Post, gift link so no paywall) says there's 20-year-old Supreme Court case law that says the Government can't treat people differently under the law just because they don't like some of them.

      Those cases were under Roberts, and were unanimous where it counted.

      Trump is repeatedly on the record saying he uses US law to go after his enemies. A Supreme Court with any spine at all could use this to shut down the worst of his behaviors.

  • Apple can build their highly automated factories here in the U.S. and continue to have everything else done overseas. Donald Trump is a simple animal: he has a pathological need to tell everyone that individuals, companies, and countries are kissing his ass. As long as you don't run afoul of his persecution complex, he has demonstrated that he can be bought cheap.

  • For saving the US economy. They threatened to dump their 1.27 trillion in Treasury bones which would have basically cause the global meltdown but their economy has been in free fall since the '90s so they can make a credible threat to do that unlike the rest of the world that would be hurt substantially by it.

    No thanks to the Republican party who could have stopped the bleeding at any time by removing Trump's emergency powers with a simple majority vote in the Senate to pass a resolution.

    And there

    • For saving the US economy. They threatened to dump their 1.27 trillion in Treasury bones which would have basically cause the global meltdown but their economy has been in free fall since the '90s so they can make a credible threat to do that unlike the rest of the world that would be hurt substantially by it.

      Japan did not publicly threaten to do this https://www.snopes.com/fact-ch... [snopes.com]

  • That is how Trump operates, don't focus, don't pay attention, screw up EVERYTHING, and then look at it later and see if it is even possible to fix the mistakes. We see that with how ICE is operating, we see that with these comments on tariffs, and just in general, Trump is too stupid to THINK before he acts.

  • I thought that was a complete no-no for republicans?

  • Apple is going to spend less than $100 million on their Houston factory -- which is by far the largest of their current commitments. The $500 billion number takes some seriously creative accounting to come up with and includes everything they are already spending in areas like R&D. This isn't $500 billion of new spending, it is far less than $200 million of new spending and an "intention" to sub-contract more within the U.S.

  • Now we get down to it (Score:3)

    by jvkjvk ( 102057 ) on Thursday April 10, 2025 @11:14AM (#65294851)

    He is wanting to pick winners and losers in the US company market, as I said he would originally.

    He will ultimately decide who gets tariffs and who doesn't by how much grift he makes. Under the table or fully open (these days so much more common for the corruption to just be out there, unashamed).

  • Integer overflow (Score:3)

    by mick232 ( 1610795 ) on Thursday April 10, 2025 @12:44PM (#65295191)
    The Chinese are simply waiting for Trump to increase tariffs beyond MAX_INT (2147483647). Once there is an integer overflow, it will be Trump who has to pay the Chinese due to the negative tariff.

Slashdot Top Deals

Real Users never use the Help key.

Close