Canada, Greenland, Mexico, etc - USA Tariffs / Trade War commencing March 2025 #4

[SouthAussie]

Where is Musk in all this mess? Is he no longer the shadow president?

He has certainly quietened down about certain subjects. imo


The online chaos was ignited by a post on X, where the White House advertised a 24-hour Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tip line.
Almost instantly, the responses were flooded with demands for Musk's expulsion.

"Hi, I have an illegal immigrant I would like to report," one user responded above a picture of Musk.

Rumors took off on social media suggesting masses were tipping off U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about Elon Musk's immigration status, allegedly leading to ICE shutting down its tip line.

In a bombshell report in October 2024, The Washington Post shared that Musk likely worked illegally in the US back in 1995, after dropping out of university studies at Stanford.

MSN

 

[Yellowbelly]

Insider trading. It's so big it's actually on the charts! In a civilised society they'd all do time, but, of course, that's not going to happen.

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[Trooper]

Insider trading. It's so big it's actually on the charts! In a civilised society they'd all do time, but, of course, that's not going to happen.

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For sure, they won't get that lead time when the whole thing goes down... Trump will not let anyone know that, for the obvious reason that his adolescent ego would take a hit. When it comes to stuff sinking, he is out playing golf...

 

[SouthAussie]

Uh oh ....


Donald Trump’s tariffs are threatening to inflate the cost of Australia’s $368 billion submarine program under the AUKUS security pact, as the former president turns to Elon Musk’s team to reengineer America’s shipbuilding capacity.

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower, said the decision to hit defence allies such as Canada and the UK with steep tariffs risked driving up the cost of steel and aluminium essential to the submarines’ construction.

“We are already having trouble getting these ships and subs on time [and] on budget. Increase those prices – it’s going to be a problem,” Kaine told an AUKUS dinner in Washington on Wednesday, as reported by Nine Newspapers.

“[Tariffs] slow us down and make things harder,” he said. “Allies are friends, and when you treat friends badly in trade, it just puts a cloud over the entire relationship.”

Huge warning as Musk combs sub deal

 

[Trooper]

Uh oh ....


Donald Trump’s tariffs are threatening to inflate the cost of Australia’s $368 billion submarine program under the AUKUS security pact, as the former president turns to Elon Musk’s team to reengineer America’s shipbuilding capacity.

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower, said the decision to hit defence allies such as Canada and the UK with steep tariffs risked driving up the cost of steel and aluminium essential to the submarines’ construction.

“We are already having trouble getting these ships and subs on time [and] on budget. Increase those prices – it’s going to be a problem,” Kaine told an AUKUS dinner in Washington on Wednesday, as reported by Nine Newspapers.

“[Tariffs] slow us down and make things harder,” he said. “Allies are friends, and when you treat friends badly in trade, it just puts a cloud over the entire relationship.”

Huge warning as Musk combs sub deal

Thar was the dumbest deal anyone in the world ever made.. That it was made by a man who was known to be irrational, makes it even more heinous... this was a man who bragged about going round laying hands on people and secretly 'healing ' them .. who said that God spoke to him thru a picture of an eagle. utter insanity .

 

[SouthAussie]

Thar was the dumbest deal anyone in the world ever made.. That it was made by a man who was known to be irrational, makes it even more heinous... this was a man who bragged about going round laying hands on people and secretly 'healing ' them .. who said that God spoke to him thru a picture of an eagle. utter insanity .

And it's not like we don't have enough steel and aluminium to supply for our subs to be built.

Bloody Scomo.

Scott Morrison hid plans from Macron to ditch French submarine contract, new book reveals

 

[TootsieFootsie]

. this was a man who bragged about going round laying hands on people and secretly 'healing ' them .. who said that God spoke to him thru a picture of an eagle. utter insanity .

The happy clapper and secret minister for whatever he wanted.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

A bit of light relief. Don't underestimate penguins.

Penguin crashes helicopter​

Penguin crashes helicopter in South Africa

South African authorities have yesterday released a report stating that the crash on Bird Island, in the Eastern Cape Province in January was caused by the penguin.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[iamshadow21]

A bit of light relief. Don't underestimate penguins.

Penguin crashes helicopter​

Penguin crashes helicopter in South Africa

South African authorities have yesterday released a report stating that the crash on Bird Island, in the Eastern Cape Province in January was caused by the penguin.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Please secure your baggage and small items and penguins.

 

[musicaljoke]

Trump has already set in motion some "offical investigation" of the two Panamanian Canal ports that were going to be sold to the US based Blackrock, Inc. a huge investment company. He's getting Rubio and Hegseth involved in it.

There are allegations of improper various and sundry licensing issues, failure to comply with some regulations, etc. All in all signaling that Trump is going to try to force the Chinese out of the Panama Canal by having Panama remove the license of the company that owns the port operations, CK Hutchison.

CK Hutchison is owned by Li Ka-Shing, a Hong Kong billionaire with a business and investment company. Before any of this tariff stuff started, the Hong Kong family wanted to liquidate their global port ownership and management company, which had 43 ports in significant areas for shipping and trade. As China controls Hong Kong, this gave China an insight as to what was happening world-wide with shipping, and they did not want the Hong Kong family to sell to Blackrock, so China managed to put a halt to the sale which was up to the point of document disclosure.

Now, this may end up being a very volatile situation. Tit-for-tat aggression.

I'm not sure what this "official investigation" might be, but the US doesn't have official jurisdiction in Panama. Trump often has difficulty recognizing the sovereignty of other countries.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/panama-should-secure-canal-with-us-not-china-hegseth-says-2025-04-09/

 

[iamshadow21]

Trump signs an executive order to charge ships built by or flagged to China with million dollar docking fees. Somehow, this is supposed to magically revive the shipbuilding industry in the US.

Trump tariffs updates: China hit with 145% duties as Wall Street slides

These are the updates for Thursday, April 10, 2025 as Donald Trump held a cabinet meeting to discuss tariffs and more.

aje.io

Japanese people are roasting the idea that Japan needs to buy more US made cars. All the memes.

Trump tariffs updates: China hit with 145% duties as Wall Street slides

These are the updates for Thursday, April 10, 2025 as Donald Trump held a cabinet meeting to discuss tariffs and more.

aje.io

Meanwhile, Trump's priority is showerheads.

“In my case, I like to take a nice shower to take care of my beautiful hair,” Trump said.

Trump tariffs updates: China hit with 145% duties as Wall Street slides

These are the updates for Thursday, April 10, 2025 as Donald Trump held a cabinet meeting to discuss tariffs and more.

aje.io

MOO

 

[KinseyFan]

This guy explains to complexities of shipping, docking, impacts of tariffs so well… (to someone clueless like me):

US consumers to pay the price of China's tariff hit

Follow the latest news headlines from Australia's most trusted source. Read in-depth expert analysis and watch live coverage on ABC News.

www.abc.net.au

 

[LoveyG]

I won't be surprised if he's not held responsible. He got away with inciting an insurrection, trying to overturn an election with a fake elector scheme. And they let him crash the economy out of spite.

He won't. Remember, SCOTUS decided he can't be held responsible for crimes committed in while executing his duties as president. The others might be but then he just pardons them if he wants. MOO.

 

[iamshadow21]

This guy explains to complexities of shipping, docking, impacts of tariffs so well… (to someone clueless like me):

US consumers to pay the price of China's tariff hit

Follow the latest news headlines from Australia's most trusted source. Read in-depth expert analysis and watch live coverage on ABC News.

www.abc.net.au

He is very good, very clear. ABC Australia, The Guardian, and Al Jazeera have all been doing some top notch, informative reporting, and it's been free to read and watch.

MOO

 

[LoveyG]

Remember after Trump won in 2016 and commentators were saying Trump would “pivot” and become “more presidential”? Ha! Now we wish he’d become more sane, and we know that will never happen. I knew it would be bad, but it’s been unbelievable since Jan. 20. When you add everything up, the U.S. is now an authoritarian country and getting worse. And don’t be thinking that if Trump croaks in office that Vance will be any better. Who’d have thunk this would happen to the U.S. so quickly.

I hope all of you in other countries will be able to overcome the havoc he’s wreaking.

JMO

It is, indeed, shocking to learn just how weak the democracy in the US is. I guess we managed all these years by sheer luck of not electing a narcissistic sociopath of Trump's ilk until now. If we survive it, hopefully we will have learned how to fill in the loopholes. MOO.

 

[LoveyG]

Vance is more terrifying, he has absolutely no control over his own tongue.. a tremendous handicap and increasingly , more unhinged, , he'll say anything.. no boundaries, he thinks this is strength, but it is pathetically weak, and will , in the end lead him into his own downfall.

True but IMO he is less practiced than Trump in his lying. That might prevent him taking hold if he does ascend to president.

 

[SouthAussie]

The New York Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for all members of Congress to disclose any stocks they had bought in the past 24 hours. “I’ve been hearing some interesting chatter on the floor,” she wrote on X. “Disclosure deadline is May 15th. We’re about to learn a few things. It’s time to ban insider trading in Congress.”

Trump ignites ‘insider trading’ accusations after global tariffs U-turn

US president posted it was ‘a great time to buy’ on social media just hours before pausing tariff impositions

www.theguardian.com

 

[Yellowbelly]

Trump signs an executive order to charge ships built by or flagged to China with million dollar docking fees. Somehow, this is supposed to magically revive the shipbuilding industry in the US.

Trump tariffs updates: China hit with 145% duties as Wall Street slides

These are the updates for Thursday, April 10, 2025 as Donald Trump held a cabinet meeting to discuss tariffs and more.

aje.io

I've been trying to get my head around what this might mean. The mainstay of global trade are enormous container ships. Work sent us down to the Port of Felixstowe once and they had one of the Evergreen 'A' class in the port. If you've never seen one they are unbelievable. They are a quarter of a mile long and hold 20,000 shipping containers. They are built by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation, which builds about a third of the world's ships. Does the USA even have shipyards capable of building ships that big.

Anyway, what I think this means for imports into the USA is that shipping companies will add the additional port charges onto the sea freight cost of shipping a container on routes to the USA from just about anywhere. This in turn will mean increased costs for people importing containers into the USA as they are the people who pay the sea freight. So again, they will be faced with a choice of passing on the cost to their customers or taking the hit on their profits.

China State Shipbuilding Corporation - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Evergreen A-class container ship - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[iamshadow21]

I've been trying to get my head around what this might mean. The mainstay of global trade are enormous container ships. Work sent us down to the Port of Felixstowe once and they had one of the Evergreen 'A' class in the port. If you've never seen one they are unbelievable. They are a quarter of a mile long and hold 20,000 shipping containers. They are built by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation, which builds about a third of the world's ships. Does the USA even have shipyards capable of building ships that big.

Anyway, what I think this means for imports into the USA is that shipping companies will add that additional port charges onto the sea freight cost of shipping a container on routes to the USA from just about anywhere. This in turn will mean increased costs for people importing containers into the USA as they are the people who pay the sea freight. So again, they will be faced with a choice of passing on the cost to their customers or taking the hit on their profits.

China State Shipbuilding Corporation - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Evergreen A-class container ship - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I remember looking up a lot of large ships and the scale of them after the Francis Scott Key bridge disaster in Maryland. I also spent over a decade of my young adulthood close to a coal port... Those ships are massive, too. They're certainly not something you could just whip up at any old shipyard. You'd need a dedicated facility, specially trained workers, equipment specifically designed for the task.

You'd also need a vast amount of resources to build one. Most of which you'd need to import.

MOO

 

[SouthAussie]

I know that the US is not hearing much about it, but there is a whole lot of talk going on behind the scene.

This is from New Zealand .... (Christopher Luxon is their PM)



On Thursday, Christopher Luxon made calls to the prime ministers of Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore, the president of the Philippines, and the head of the European Union.

Luxon also spoke to his Irish counterpart ..... He is expected to speak with other leaders in coming days

He would also visit the UK later this month to meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer "to talk trade, security, and the geopolitical backdrop in Europe and the Indo-Pacific".

"Collective action, and a collective commitment, by a large portion of the global economy would be a significant step towards preserving free trade flows and protecting supply chains."

Luxon speaks to six world leaders about Donald Trump's tariffs

Further conversations about US President Donald Trump's tariffs are also expected.

www.rnz.co.nz