[tivert]

> This is clearly designed to keep people busy worrying about their survival while Elon and them continue on with their hapless refactor.

Huh? Trump's not engaging in some conspiracy to protect Elon. He's always liked tariffs, and this is him doing what he believes.

Cut it out with the weird conspiracy theories. They're not helpful.

[blurbleblurble]

Have you been paying attention to the kinds of things these people publicly say and do?

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/kaboom-elon-musk-predicts-...

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-ad...

Do you know who the vice president is and what ideology he subscribes to? One of his muses had an interview recently:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/18/magazine/curtis-yarvin-in...

Then there's this faction, who have been blasting their ideas for decades but now have the trifecta of US government power: https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FUL...

[tivert]

> Have you been paying attention to the kinds of things these people publicly say and do?

Yes, I have. You didn't understand my comment, which was the motives for the tariffs (hint: they're not there to distract from Elon).

[lawn]

It's not about Elon specifically but on the general dismantling of the government in general.

[xor-eax-eax]

> He's always liked tariffs, and this is him doing what he believes.

This maybe so, but he still doesn't understand who pays them or why his cronies like them so much. Tariffs transfer wealth from consumers to the government while simultaneously raising inflation. DOGE and friends want to privatize as much government as possible to extract money from it as a grift. Tariffs also hurt SMB sellers who cannot strategically front-load inventory like megacorps can. Furthermore, inflationary policies help out the 0.001% who can financialize weakening currencies while simultaneously making everything more expensive for ordinary people, effectively reducing average and unlivable wages to be even more unequal compared to the soon-to-be trillionaires. It's an ostensible nationalist/protectionist move that's cynically all about $$$$. The average American should anticipate paying $2000 more per year by the time 2026 rolls around for all of their expenditures... for absolutely nothing of value while not receiving a raise to account for it.