Didn’t think so.
I don't know where the real cutoff is, but for an extreme example: if the tariffs are 1e6% or 1e7%, nobody's buying anything by lawful channels.
Also, there's not much stopping people from shipping to a country with a 10% tariff, that 10% country taking a 1% cut to slap a different "made in" label on the side and then re-exporting to the US, making it effectively an 11% tariff for whoever originally made it.
I know very little however, so if someone with more knowledge on this can chime in on how this works practically, it would edifying.
As in, beyond sanewashing, this explanation does not pass the basic smell test.
For whatever reason, Trump is taking the stance that China must immediately accept these tariffs without retaliation. But politically, Xi cannot be seen as submitting to Trump's pressure. So either China gives, or Trump gives, or neither gives and China is seen as openly defying Trump. Only one of those is a "win" from Trump's perspective, and it's the one that will never happen.
The Congress legally can revoke delegation of its tariff/tax power. But the political cost is too high. The tariffs will stick no matter what until the 2026 election. There is no chance 2/3rds of the House overrides a presidential veto.
I was thinking more like how Amazon has a seemingly endless collection of suppliers you've never heard of with suspicious names whose letters look like they might be attempting to form syllables. I expect those to be harder to keep track of, and to find it easier to fly under the political radar.
Also, if tariffs were meant against China specifically, they would not use the exact same formula on Europe, Penguins, Korea, Bolivia and whole world except Russia. There was no China specific tariff.
How did he contradict Bessent? Genuinely curious, I am only familiar with recent events.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5236599-thune-trump-tari...
Believe it. With polls like this, no chance of a vote to overrule the president on tariffs. He said he was going to do this. It was central to his campaign. The single most repeated thing he promised were big tariffs.