Supersized Winning

Tariffs are taxes

The Treasury Department reported that Trump’s tariffs brought in over $28 billion in revenue last May. Naturally, this got MAGAts hyped up and excited as they think this is “winning.”

Hey, it doesn’t matter that Trump’s tax cuts for asshole billionaires will lead to even larger deficits, we’re getting all this revenue from foreign nations. They got more “winning” last week when the European Union agreed on a tariff on their goods of 15 percent. Holy Wowzers. That’s a lot of winning.

What MAGAts don’t realize is that the $28 billion wasn’t paid for by China, Mexico, Canada, or even Penguin Island. They don’t understand that the 15 percent on EU stuff won’t be paid for by the EU. American consumers pay for the tariffs. Even if you suck at economics, and it’s a hard subject, learning how tariffs work can be easy.

In easy terms, a tariff is a tax. While Donald Trump is cutting taxes, he’s also raising them.

Let’s say I live in Denmark and I sell wooden shoes. That’s Denmark, right? Or was it Holland? I just looked it up, and it’s Holland. The shoes are called “Klompens,” probably because you klomp around in them. Anywaysies, I’m in Europe and I sell stupid shoes. When I sell them to stores in the United States, Trump forces me to pay a 15 percent tariff. How do I make up that 15 percent, because I don’t want to eat it. I raise the price of my Klompens by 15 percent. The store doesn’t want to eat that 15 percent either, so guess what they do. They raise the price of the shoes they bought from me by at least 15 percent. That means American customers of those stupid, ugly wooden shoes pay the tariffs.

The way this can hurt me is that people may not want to purchase my stupid, ugly wooden shoes, and will tell me to get the klomp out of here. Fortunately, American consumers may not even notice the price increase. We still purchase iPhones even though every new version costs more than the last one, and the only changes are that they come in more colors and with “enhanced” AI, like we need more of that shit. Siri doesn’t let me talk to myself anymore. I’m sticking with my 12 until it dies of natural causes or I accidentally murder it deliberately. So far, it’s fine, knock on Klompens.

Jeffrey Sachs is a famous economist and a professor at Harvard. Last April, at a diplomatic conference in Turkey (in case you’re a MAGAt, the nation, not the bird), he dismantled Trump’s claim that the United States had been “ripped off” economically for decades.

Trump said, “The United States has been ripped off like no country probably in the history of the world has been ripped off for 45-50 years.” Someone should tell Trump about this continent called Africa. Oh, wait. He already knows. It’s where he thinks “shithole” countries are.

Sachs responded to Trump’s statement at the forum and said, “If you take your credit card and go shopping and you run up a large credit card debt, you’re running a trade deficit, with all those shops.”

“It would be pretty strange then if you blame all the shop owners for having sold you all those things. ‘You’re ripping me off, you’re ripping me off.’ That is the level of the understanding of the President of the United States.”

Here’s the best part: Sachs said, “The trade deficit does not represent at all trade policies. It represents spending relative to production or earnings. We call that an identity. I teach it on the second day of my course in international monetary economics. Trump never made it to the second day.”

“He (Trump) says, ‘You’re running a trade deficit and look, they’re all cheating me.’ But all that’s happening is that the United States is outspending its national income.

Over at the Daily Cartoonist, Mike Peterson wrote, “One estimate is that American families will each pay about $2,400 in tariffs this year. Obviously, that hits poorer families harder than rich ones. You don’t have to go to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to understand this, but apparently, you can go there, get a degree, and still not understand it. Which is roughly like graduating from law school and thinking that a tort is some kind of little fruit pie.”

Mmmmmm. Torts.

I think Trump does know that tariffs are taxes, because he was threatening American corporations like Walmart NOT to raise their prices. He didn’t want prices raised, even though he’s the one raising them, because Americans might notice the increases while he’s raising tariffs. Even MAGAts might notice. Sure, they’re distracted by Epstein, trans people in women’s sports, which public restrooms people are using, and what Hunter Biden is doing today, but they still might notice that the price of sweatpants with “Juicy” emblazoned on the butt went up 15 percent.

What Trump, who’s had a long and distinguished career as a grifter, is doing is operating a shell game. He’s been running a shell game with his supporters for years. For example, he declares he won’t accept his presidential salary of $400,000 a year, but then spends millions of taxpayer dollars golfing at his resorts, where he charges the Secret Service for golf cart rentals to follow and protect his huge orange ass. Trump actually increases the prices of the rooms for government workers. But hey, he’s not taking a salary.

It’s estimated that Trump spent over $151 million of your money playing golf during his first term. A lot of that went directly to Trump, and not just to gas up Air Force One (not the one that was the bribe from Qatar). I’m no math wiz, but I do know that $151 million is more than four years of presidential salary ($1.6 million). It’s a shell game that only stupid people fall for, like MAGAts.

By the way, if Trump keeps up his current golfing pace, he’ll spend over $240 million of taxpayer money playing golf. Or in his case, cheating at golf.

Trump also operates a shell game by taking campaign donations, then spending them at his resorts. Why do you think so many Republican events are held at MAGA-Lardo? Because they’re free? Because they’re the best venues to host events? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! That’s cute. Trump is raking in millions from the Republican Party and his own campaign.

Trump claims he’s going to put his own money into the new tacky ballroom at the White House, but if you believe the guy selling Trump Bibles is going to spend his own money on a public works project, then I’ll sell you oceanfront Brooklyn Bridge property in Kansas. I bet Trump holds fundraisers at his resorts to raise money for the project. Hell, Trump had a fundraiser at one of his resorts where all the profits went to Rudy Giuliani’s legal fund…after Trump took his cut, of course. And Trump still refuses to pay the legal fees he owes Rudy.

If Giuliani were in jail, and you gave Trump $300 to bail him out, we’d never see Rudy again.

Now, Trump is hoping the rest of the nation is as stupid as his supporters. But there’s no way we’re all as stupid as MAGAts. For example, I wasn’t dumb enough to vote for the grifting racist dictator wannabe. And I’m pretty dumb. I once went to the National Airport to catch a flight…that was flying out of Dulles. And on that same trip, I booked my return flight for the same day I was arriving (thank god my ex-wife’s husband, Kenny, caught that). Me not smart good.

Tariffs are taxes. It’s that simple, like knowing healthcare is a right, not a privilege, or that you don’t vote for people who cheat at golf, or real Christians don’t support a guy trying to date his daughter, or who has been accused of sexual assault by over 24 women, or who has cheated on all three of his wives, or tries to have sex with all his friends’ wives, or who brags that he “grabs them by the pussy.”

And if you refuse to pay a few cents more for someone to have a living wage, then you’re probably as much of an asshole as a MAGAt.

Creative note: I wrote this idea last Wednesday, but I kept pushing it back because of more Trump Fuckery.

I told you that I didn’t copy and paste any of my art for yesterday’s six-panel cartoon. Today, I did. I copied the fast-food employee, the counter, and the logo for “Burger Daddy,” which I made up.

Speaking of the Burger Daddy logo, I created a logo for a business. I’m not a graphic artist, so I don’t claim I’m good at creating logos and stuff like that. But my niece, Rene, in Alabama, is a veterinarian, and she has a booming business. She asked me to design a logo, and I did, and she liked it. Since I’m not a logo maker, and my drawing skills are only suited for cartoons, she had another artist run with my concept, which is more suited for a business than the scratchy cartoon I delivered.

If you have a sick animal and you’re in the Huntsville/Madison, Alabama area, check out Rocket City Veterinary Hospital. Tell them that Rene’s uncle sent you.

Music note: I listened to Eddy Grant, and I don’t even like reggae.

Drawn in 30 seconds:

Timelapse:

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