Trump’s Self-Inflicted Tariff Disaster

His most predictable self-own yet

Donald Trump does a Liz Truss!

Okay I know this isn’t the biggest problem with Trump’s crazy tariffs policy, but it is really hard to produce a video about it when things keep changing!

Just as I was finishing on Wednesday he announced a “pause” and the stock market started to skyrocket. On the one hand I was happy as… well a global recession isn’t exactly what anyone wants. But on the other, I’d written a script about Trump’s economic disaster. Was the disaster now over?

Fortunately for my video (if not the world!) it was obvious even on Wednesday that the rally was a sugar high and the slump is likely to continue. I mean if it’s hard for me to plan a YouTube video, think what the uncertainty does to business decisions.

Until next time,

Brendan

+ “Now, with both the stock markets plunging and the American president’s aggressive rhetoric towards fellow NATO members, I fear that I finally have full-on Trump Derangement Syndrome and, having been uninfected during the first wave, have no immunity. I genuinely now worry, years after everyone else, that he is a catastrophe, not just for American politics but for the western alliance generally, and for the political Right everywhere. Not only are we all going to be a lot poorer and the world a lot less safe, but we’re also going to end up with a thousand years of woke after Trump is finished; he will truly be the Julian the Apostate of our time.” Do I have Trump Derangement Syndrome? Ed West, a conservative writer, fears what Trump will mean for conservatism. Also argues the better model for Trump’s threat to democracy is Caesar rather than Hitler.

+ This video was a bit of an experience for me as it was my first sponsor. Sponsors are a game-changer on YouTube — the difference between doing it as a hobby (what it is currently) and being able to do less commercial video work and focus more on it. It can easily match the ad revenue you get from YouTube. Anyway, it was quite a pleasant surprise to get this product as it’s actually quite interesting e.g. the Blindspot feature where you can see what stories are being heavily reported by the left or right. (By the way, they haven’t asked me to include this mention —I just genuinely think it’s quite cool.)

+ I hope you’re enjoying the “melty face” thumbnails. They’ve become a bit of theme. In fact for the last video I spent a whole day playing with alternative designs: