President Donald Trump on Wednesday admitted that his idiotic tariffs will lead to empty shelves at stores across the country, but said that it's fine because we don't need material items anyway.
"They made a trillion dollars with Biden ... selling us stuff. Much of it we don't need," Trump said of China during an insane Cabinet meeting in which his administration officials rained North Korea levels of praise on their Dear Leader. "Somebody said, 'Oh, the shelves are gonna be open.' Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally."
Of course, China sells much more than just toys to the United States.
In 2022, “China was the top supplier of goods to the United States, accounting for 16.5 percent of total goods imports,” according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which said that China supplied $536.3 billion worth of goods to the United States.
Among the top items China exports to the United States are machinery and mechanical appliances, clothing, furniture, bedding, lamps, games, and sports equipment, according to a report from the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security.
Americans will absolutely feel pain if those items disappear from store shelves.
“In economics, when folks can afford fewer things at higher prices, we call it a decline in real income, and a widespread fall in real income is called a recession,” economist Justin Wolfers wrote in a post on X responding to Trump’s Cabinet meeting comment.
What’s more, the irony of Trump and his posse of billionaire Cabinet officials sitting in the White House that Trump filled with hideous gilded trinkets, paid for by taxpayers, while telling Americans that they will have to go without is hard to stomach.
It's also ironic that Trump is basically arguing for Communism—saying the people of America must suffer and go without for the greater good. Of course, the “greater good” in this situation is just letting Trump have his way on trade policy—which is already having negative impacts.
The economy shrank in the first quarter of the year, as businesses stockpiled inventory before Trump's tariffs hit. And the bulk of Trump's tariffs weren't even in place for that quarter of the year, meaning second quarter economic performance could look even worse.
Big-box store CEOs are warning of the impact tariffs will have on consumers, saying shortages will be here and prices will skyrocket. And companies are already announcing price increases and layoffs thanks to the impact of tariffs.
All of this pain has led Trump’s approval rating to plummet, with voters by large margins disapproving of his handling of the economy. Polls also show that voters feel their economic situation is getting worse and that tariffs are not the answer to lowering prices.
And color us skeptical that Trump telling Americans that they will go without and like it will help turn his poor polling situation around.
So far, all Trump has done in his first 100 days in office is make recessions great again.
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