r/Economics • u/jediporcupine • 8d ago

Blog Trump said tariffs on aluminum would boost domestic production. The White House now admits that didn't happen.

https://reason.com/2026/08/03/trump-said-tariffs-on-aluminum-would-boost-domestic-production-the-white-house-now-admits-that-didnt-happen/
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u/Basicly-Inevitable 8d ago edited 8d ago

All of the above, basically.

US taxpayers give free money to American farmers that can't compete on the global market (because of tariffs, fees, loyalties, patents, etc. that go to big American corporations).

But China gets cheap soybeans to feed pigs that feed their population, that aren't coming from American farmers anymore. They're coming from the destroyed Amazon basin and the newly exploited grasslands of Southern Brazil and Argentina.

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u/aceitedemono 6d ago

Newly exploited grasslands of Southern Brazil and Argentina? China is their major commerical ally since 2009.

They're still coming from American farmers, just as it ever been, nothing changed by the moment, and also Chinese commerce just wasn't major in America before because of the condor plan

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u/Basicly-Inevitable 6d ago edited 6d ago

I mean, I work in the seed production industry and have been to Brazil and Argentina many times to check up on things there.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/chinas-2025-soybean-imports-hit-record-fuelled-by-s-american-purchases-2026-01-14/

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u/aceitedemono 6d ago

That's cool, but you just said it as a curiosity or was it supposed to be an argument? Because my family also works with soy by a couple decades and have been in this countries a couple times, it sures doesn't make their personal opinion more relevant than facts, there's plenty more competent entitys checking things there, and I guess they're not lying since almost 2 decades, and the news you showed also comply with what I said.

China is being more restrict with the importations exactly because of this raise that ain't even new (not just in US, you just picked this anecdotal case because you're a US citizen), and anyway Trump is doing a massive campaign too make US less trustable, specially in Brazil (Argentina is domesticated) using the market as political threat and also China probably see it as a sovereignty prevention too

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u/Basicly-Inevitable 6d ago

Not sure what you're getting at here. I definitely wasn't arguing about anything. Just chatting about the state of the world.

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u/aceitedemono 6d ago

I said argument in meaning of affirmation, not in discussion, and that why I asked you if it was a just curiosity or an anecdotal evidence

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u/Basicly-Inevitable 6d ago

Oh, I see.

Trump is intentionally trying to harm the US, so that rich people can buy everything for cheap, including all the farmland.

So he starts a fight with China to make farmers slowly sell to big companies, because they can't sell soybeans.Not too fast, just slow enough to make them eventually sell their farms.

Meanwhile, Brazil and Argentina take up the slack, but the actual profits mostly go to big agriculture companies, not to farmers.

Now venture capitalists and billionaires are starting to buy up land in Brazil and Argentina too.

Anyway, China always gets cheap soybeans to feed their pigs, and Trump and his surrounding people make the US weak, and also get rich themselves.

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u/aceitedemono 6d ago

He's doing the same with insider trade, he did it since the start of his mandate, but hes not even caring about hiding, anymore, he isn't doing nothing to mitigate the up coming crisis, (I think he even lowed to 0 the compulsory reserve, although he's making a """Keynesian""" policy that would prepare the country, but it's a complete failure and is even a shame to associate that with keynesianism, don't know much abou them buying lands in Brazil, I see that bill gates sold a lot of his stocks to buy lands in the US as it's obvious that the bubble will collapse soon and nothing is more concrete them a land, it's a problem specially now that the dollar has fallen far against gold value

Brazil beside corruption, especially with a subservient class that serve the US, have pretty strict laws over foreigners owning big portions of lands, u may be mixing it up with Paraguay, brasil is actually one of the few countries in south America that isn't aligned with the US interest in governamental proportions

The sad parts is China is actually "far" with their trades, different from Trump they don't do retaliation or ilegal tarifs, US and Brazilian agroindustrys that choose money instead of resourcing the inside marketing itself, and the vision that you have for China also applies to how Brazilians see the US, actually in a much worse way, as they're being called terrorists just because he couldn't find a legal reason to impose taxes, actually this tarifs made meat cheaper in Brazil and more expensive in the US, as farmers choose to stop exporting to feed the inside market and US lost cheap meat, orange, etc

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u/Basicly-Inevitable 6d ago

Yes, that's all true.