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this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2026
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Yup. Same as those doge checks and refund checks and everything else he's promised.
Like everything he says about tariffs, or in general, the "tariff refund checks" is an offensively stupid concept. First, he lies his ass off all the time saying that foreign governments pay tariffs, which can easily shown to not only be false, but to make no sense at all (100% tariff = free for us?). He recently said that Mexico "paid for the wall" because he "charged them tariffs". So either he straight up lies because admitting it's a tax on Americans sounds bad, or he's actually too stupid to know how tariffs work. Anyway, so if foreign governments pay for them, why would we be getting a "refund"? Next, if we pay for them, why charge tariffs and then just give the money back?? All that thinking is too hard for your average maga dolt though.
Let's be honest, this isn't just maga morons.
Tariffs were not exactly something in the public consciousness until recently, and I've just encountered a ton of people over the past couple of years who didn't understand how they worked.
I mean, with the previous de minimus exemption, the actions of tariffs would have been mostly hid to us through inflation, promotion, or demotion of certain products, etc. Right now your average Joe likely has to pay them just to order something from Europe or Canada.
I guess what I wonder is why Trump fans are either oblivious or indifferent to being lied to constantly
For my (young) children, reality is malleable, or at least their perception of it is. When I explain something to them, they're largely going to take it for face value, even if it conflicts with prior knowledge.
When it comes to the under-educated that he proclaims he loves so much, I think that's the same thing. When you don't know enough about how the world works, everything around you's going to appear to be fucking magic.
So imagine a dude comes out and explains to you that he's famous and wealthy and an excellent businessman and is the smartest guy around. Once you start buying it, you're not going to question whatever comes out of his mouth, even if it's inconsistent with previous statements or reality.
I don't expect people to have already known how tariffs worked unless they personally imported items over $800. A fair amount of people do that as part of their jobs or businesses, though.
However, what I mean is working through the logic of Trump's lies about it. Why would foreign governments pay for a private company to sell something to the US? If it mean the exporting company had to give us a discount, that sort of makes sense, but as I noted earlier, a 100% tariff, if always paid by someone outside the US, would mean it's free for us, and over 120% would mean they paid us to take their goods. Obviously that would never happen.