MSN carries an AP item: Trump warns Walmart: Don’t raise prices due to my tariffs but do eat the costs from those taxes
Nobody is fooled by consumers taking on the cost of the tariff war as a consumer tax hike; as is reported by AP, mid item -
So far, those tariffs have darkened the mood of an otherwise resilient U.S. economy. The preliminary reading of the University of Michigan survey of consumer sentiment on Friday slipped to its second lowest measure on record, with roughly 75% of respondents “spontaneously” mentioning tariffs as they largely expected inflation to accelerate.
In April, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon was among the retail executives who met with Trump at the White House to discuss tariffs. But the Trump administration went forward despite warnings and has attacked other companies such as Amazon and Apple that are struggling with the disruptions to their supply chains.
Tell the truth Donald, or otherwise just shut up. And, well, the AP indicates that the linked study (check it out) says a quarter of those surveyed wore MAGA hats and will believe anything Donald tells them and will stand in front of traffic if that's what he posts telling them to do on his social media thing. Three quarters of the people are not fooled; only the fools are fooled, but does Trump really care? He cares enough to try a shot at bullying Walmart, talking to their CEO, but beyond that he's otherwise busy listening to Stephen Miller telling him how the immigrant round-up is going so he can post on his social media thing that the nation's judges, and not him, are at fault. Maybe he would even blame the judges if Walmart does raise prices to satisfy shareholder desire for profits.
If
manufacturing investment in the U.S. arises as a tariff consequence the
robots in the new factories will busily work night and day as needed. And because they are
not human they will not have an opinion either way on whether the job sucks or the boss is a jerk. Just churning out
the widgets, no smile, no stress.
A few people will maintain the
robots. Those will be new jobs. "Robot tender" is what the Linkedin
profile will say.
BFD.
The wealthy will make money from the robot factories, but -
What else?
[NOTE: This post was largely rewritten, in that the first draft was in the Edge browser which in default mode handles Blogger formatting differently than FireFox. Will be more careful after having to do a rewrite to this final version. ]
___________UPDATE_____________
What that Michigan Survey report says:
Sentiment is now down almost 30% since January 2025. Slight increases in sentiment this month for independents were offset by a 7% decline among Republicans. While most index components were little changed, current assessments of personal finances sank nearly 10% on the basis of weakening incomes. Tariffs were spontaneously mentioned by nearly three-quarters of consumers, up from almost 60% in April; uncertainty over trade policy continues to dominate consumers’ thinking about the economy. Note that interviews for this release were conducted between April 22 and May 13, closing two days after the announcement of a pause on some tariffs on imports from China. Many survey measures showed some signs of improvement following the temporary reduction of China tariffs, but these initial upticks were too small to alter the overall picture – [...]
That's what Trump cares about. A fraction of Republicans were starting to smell the bullshit. So his answer is to dial back the trade war and hope. Atop the Michigan interim report, "Read our April 11th special report, Partisan Perceptions and Sentiment Measurement". That item basically says voters identifying with the party in the White House are more accepting of bad news than the party on the out. And it presents evidence backing that generality up. So when Republicans show a 10% shift on any economic aspect, Trump notices.
Add to that, MSN also carries a WSJ item (without WSJ's paywall): The Coalition That Powered Trump to Victory in 2024 Is Starting to Fray.
Rupert's people can get Trump's attention.
With Bannon insistent that Trump will be the 2028 Republican candidate, despite the Constitutional two term limit, we can foresee a scenario where JD is nominally the candidate, Trump is VP, and if winning JD taking a hike. Trump then in by succession, not by running for a third term. Something like that, so that Trump is possibly not seeing himself in a lame duck term, but rather attuned to voter sentiment with extending his White House tenure in mind, (that tenure entailing all the grift he can squeeze out of it - meme coins, Saudi and Qatari accommodations to gain arms sales, etc. - plus liking the power).
With Trump, some trust a lot, others trust little. He needs to hold MAGA together.