Richard Wolff on Trump’s Tariffs: “It’s a Crock!”

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In a week of market turmoil, we need a real expert to explain WTF is going on with Trump, tariffs, reversals, and crashes. So we’re talking to Useful Idiot-favorite, economist Richard Wolff, who sheds light on a tumultuous week and gives a fascinating lecture on what Trump should be doing to save the economy, and why he won’t.

Useful Idiots: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent just gave a speech saying ‘yes, the market is tumbling, but too bad, Wall Street. It's not your turn. This is the era of Main Street.’ This is the Trump administration's message now: The stock market has taken a huge hit, but that's because we're focused on restoring Main Street. How do you respond to that?

Richard Wolff: This is all advertising noise. It has nothing to do with anything. The reason that Wall Street is yelling is that they don't want to be pinched. They're perfectly happy to have Mr. Trump do most of the things he wants to do. But they don't want to pay even this much of a fee for the benefits.

Let me give you an example. When Mr. Trump was president the first time, the only basic economic achievement was the tax cut of 2017, an enormous tax cut given to corporations and the rich. The thirty years before 2017 were an enormous and unprecedented redistribution of wealth and income from the bottom and the middle to the top. If ever you didn't need a tax cut for those people, it was then.

The only opposition to it that the Democrats could achieve was a sunset. It would expire this year, 2025. And so Mr. Trump has an urgent need, which all of Wall Street understands. He can't allow that to happen because they would all blame him.

So that's what he's about to do. And the major way he thinks he can do that is by savaging public employment through all the firings, and by income from tariffs. I want people to understand this means that the Republican Party, which for a hundred years has branded itself the anti-tax party, has overnight become the mammoth tax-imposing economy, because a tariff is just a tax. And so what they're achieving is huge increase in taxes and firing large numbers of public employees. That's what it's about. The Main Street/Wall Street nonsense is pure fluff and shouldn't detract anyone from the underlying realities.

Useful Idiots: Trump announced [on Wednesday] that he’s authorized a 90-day pause and a substantially lowered reciprocal tariff of 10% during that period. Help us make sense of what he’s doing here.

Richard Wolff: I'm mystified. In my wildest imagination. Since I've just explained about uncertainty – I'm blown away – it's just incredible what he's doing. It’s beyond anything I can give you a rational answer for because this is no longer a rational behavior pattern.

Useful Idiots: ‘Incredible’ like incredibly stupid?

Richard Wolff: Yeah incredibly self-defeating. It undercuts any calculation. Even Jamie Dimon said that the uncertainty is the issue. This is just revving up uncertainty by cutting it down, making it not effective for ninety days. Everybody has to wonder: what happens at the end of ninety days? Another thirty days? Another twelve? I mean, this is beyond words.

Subscribe to watch or listen to for the full interview with Professor Richard Wolff where he gives his prediction for the future of the US empire, the rise of BRICS, and answers the question: are we headed for a recession?

Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Fox News Reluctantly Criticizes Trump’s Tariff "Capitulation"

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