Tariff Gambit Bets Americans Will Swallow Higher Prices

[Zorro]

President Trump’s sweeping tariffs are expected to raise the cost of cars, electronics, metals, lumber, pharmaceuticals and other products that American consumers and businesses buy from overseas.

But Mr. Trump and his advisers are betting that it can sell an inflation-weary public on a provocative idea: Cheap stuff is not the American dream.

“I couldn’t care less if they raise prices, because people are going to start buying American-made cars,” Mr. Trump said on NBC’s Meet the Press show on Sunday in response to fears of foreign car prices spiking.

The notion that there is more to life than low-cost imports is an acknowledgment that tariffs could impose additional costs on Americans. It is also a pitch that the burden will be worth it. Mr. Trump’s ability to convince consumers that it is acceptable to pay more to support domestic manufacturing and adhere to his “America First” agenda could determine whether the president’s second term is a success or a calamity.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/business/trump-tariffs-higher-prices.html

It will be a con for the ages if Trump convinces Americans that higher prices are good for them.

[durablend]

1. Trump: "REMEMBER, BIDEN DID THIS TO YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!"

[usedtobedemgurl]

2. With regulations, i am sure, going by the wayside,

I will not buy American. It could kill me! And I am sure it may be cheaply made. If I have to pay more, anyway, I will pay for Canadian goods.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. They will fix their old ones. Americans resist tyranny. It's in their DNA.

A tariff on cars is like King George's tax on tea. It effects just about everyone, and it hurts.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. Propaganda

Propaganda is powerful.

I have caught a lot of heat here on DU the last 4 years for pointing out the facts of the Joe Biden economy. Biden's economy was the first time in generations that the middle class saw the gains they made. Gains in real income, gains in wealth, gains in many other metrics. The middle class actually gained on the rich during Biden's term. But the propaganda is so strong that all people paid attention to was bad news. Inflation was exaggerated and covered non stop, even when incomes were rising more than prices for the last few years of Biden's presidency. Every bit of bad news was posted here on DU, and then I'd get accused of being callous to the suffering simply by pointing out the data that clearly showed working people were making gains.

My point is, the propaganda worked on many DU posters, and it worked on most of society in general. People were voting for Harris despite the Biden economy, not because of it.

And you saw it in poll after poll of the public where people talked about inflation and the horrible economy, but never about their own raises or improving finances. In fact occasionally you'd see polls that essentially said, "65% of Americans think they're worse off because the economy is bad and getting worse, but 80% of Americans say their own finances have improved."

I am almost 53 years old, it took my entire life to witness the gains Joe Biden delivered for working people, and I'll be dead and gone before we every see anything close to it again. So sad. Joe Biden was the greatest president for the working class since FDR and even his own party failed to give him much credit.

Now back to propaganda. It will work in reverse too. People will be essentially saying in polls, "Sure, I lost my job, my savings or gone, and I lost my house, but I'm still better off because just look at this great economy..." That's the power of propaganda, and for the Trumpists, it will be 5 fold, these people will literally be standing in the soup line wearing tattered rags telling everyone about how Great America is now.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

9. Yep. Most news outlets out there are right wing propaganda.

You really have to actively go out to get news that isn’t right wing. I used to check to see what Fox News is saying about scandals and they just pump out BS. When I checked what they were saying about Signalgate, I became so angry (they were blaming the journalist) that I decided I can no longer ever check into what they’re saying - it is maddening and depressing. I’m just going to act like the right does - be in denial that there are these horrible people out there.

[Johnny2X2X]

12. Yeah, but it was way more than FOX News

And still is. MSNBC, CNN, ABC, The Post, the NY Times, the AP. On and on. It was just a deluge of articles about the "bad economy" when the reality is that the economy was better under Biden than Trump, even with inflation it was easily better. And if you happened to be a low wage worker, it was way way better. Low wage workers saw the biggest gains, They saw massive gains in wages, gains in savings, and gains in the ability to deal with an emergency financially.

And the anger it ginned up even here on DU was palpable. Some poll came out in early 2024 that said, "69% of Americans say they're living paycheck to paycheck!!!" I read the article and noticed it didn't say if that was higher than before or lower than before, so I looked at the poll itself, then saw they had done the poll a few years before under Trump, you guessed it, it was much higher under Trump, like 82% of people under Trump said they were living paycheck to paycheck. When I showed my work and posted that fact I got accused of ignoring the less fortunate and being cold hearted to the many who are suffering. Forget that that is a bogus poll question to even ask as it's a loaded one, all I was doing was showing what that poll previously said.

I polled people here on DU if they were doing better financially, and it was a large and overwhelming response that like 80% of DUers were doing better financially under Biden, like 15% were doing the same, and just a few % doing worse. So why didn't we post like it? Why were there so many posts about how "The Dems message is failing bcause they aren't addressing the suffering of the working class!!!" It didn't add up, until you understood the propaganda. Propaganda can work on all groups, regardless of reality, regardless of their individual experiences, and regardless educations and intelligence. Anecdotes or partial evidence became more important than the actual data because they followed the propaganda that was flowing.

Working people are never going to have it as good in this country again as they had it under Biden, never! From here on out it's going to be a steady stream of data, lower wages, higher costs, less security, less rights for workers, less heatlh care, less for your children, less for the schools, more for the rich. That's what we'll see unabated now, and people still won't even recognize how good things were under Biden.

[Tootbsb]

5. People do not have the ability to afford higher prices.

Even though idiots would be willing, they’re simply unable. The red states already need to import blue state money to keep going.

[surfered]

6. Especially after promising to lower prices

[multigraincracker]

7. Will all those new workers be able to afford those cars they build?

[Du916]

11. I think Trump backs off on tariffs on cars and car parts

By threatening tariffs, he is driving people who are in the market to purchase cars to make their purchases now. He’ll back off on the tariff threat, yet again. and claim credit for any jump in car sales.

[GoreWon2000]

8. Trade protectionism/Smoot-Hawley tariffs caused 1930's depression

History teaches that tariffs are job killers. There's no better example than the great depression of the 1930s. In addition, tRump is too stupid to know that many of the parts in "American made" cars are actually made overseas. tRump's tariffs will cause the price of American cars to go up too. History further teaches that tariffs have never brought jobs back home to the U.S. tRump's gutting of the Infrastructure law and the CHIPs act which were designed to create more U.S. jobs and bring back manufacturing jobs to the U.S. wi/l also be job killers. I guess we'll find out if people think that maintaining the unqualified, white, anglo, christian male only powerbase is more important to them than having a job and being able to pay their monthly bills like, food, mortgage or rent, a dew clothes, paying for a car, educating their kids, ectc.

[harumph]

10. Yeah, no...I'm just going to be buynig less.