The Realities Of Trump's Trade War

"Trade wars are good and easy to win," President Donald J. Trump famously tweeted. But how would one really impact everyday Americans?

We traveled across the country and met the manufacturers, people, and competing forces facing the realities of Trump's trade war.

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[mashamitchell]

7:25 This is entirely what's wrong with this country. He essentially is saying, "as long as I get what I want, I don't care that my actions might negatively affect other people in other industries." But you were crying when someone did this exact thing to you. What a selfish population.

[m_m]

Vice, you should do an episode on how college graduates can't get jobs in the field they went to school for.

[James-kesx]

Cheaper to buy items in Canada these days. I used to buy on Amazon USA and ship to Canada and save money. Now everything is either the same or sometimes cheaper here in Canada. I'm 69 years old and I never thought I'd see this day. Donald Trump Made Canada great again, I now shop in Canada only.

[TheDonaldhollman]

26:15 The accuracy is astounding! Considering the pandemic took place a year after this video came out.

[donovanchaas]

I know a shitload of people who voted for trump for the sole reason that he isn't Hillary Clinton.

[mattrusingmail]

do an update on this story every 6 months. It will be fascinating to see how things actually unfold over years time (since tariffs are only a temporary tool),

[SonicX]

"Its above our pay grade to worry about the effects in other peoples industry's" - Spoken like a true CEO

[mayragarcia]

Maybe he should start by having his daughter produce her shoes In the USA

[julessmith]

china does not have a problem with pork because they bought the largest u.s. pork company smithfield.

[davidshelow]

"It's above our pay grade to worry about whether there will be impacts on some of these other industries or not." One of the falsehoods of Adam Smith's economics, ie, if everyone--individuals and industries--pursues only their own interests, everything will be fine and the effects will be balanced out. Our "leaders" can't think any broader than this, and it is disastrous.

[Patriot_Eke]

It's hard to fight a large war with your enemy when they produce most of the aluminum and steel you need.

[eternalelysium]

"We could support ourselves without depending on other countries", whelp, any country with this thought in mind usually don't end up doing too well economically...

[who]

“I don’t care about how this works as long as it works in my favor” -middle America

[brucecaldwell]

That guy at the nail factory says "I didn't think about our raw material". Guess he thought the raw material gods bestowed it upon the factory. C'mon man.

[OldSaltyBear]

"without WalMart there is no middle class or lower class prosperity in America"?

Can someone explain to me how the prosperity of a global corporation who receives enormous amounts of corporate welfare in the form of tax and employee subsidies is tied to the prosperity of the middle and lower classes?

That statement seems counter-intuitive to me. Why? WalMart avoids hiring full time hourly employees so they don't have to provide benefits to them. They also pay their hourly employees so little that they cannot rise above the poverty line, which qualifies them for food stamps. WalMart also requires local and state tax incentives just to open up shop, which in turn destroys the local economy by pushing out small business competitors. The only people who benefit from WalMart is WalMart executives and shareholders.

I guess I should not be surprised that the author of trickle down economics would say such a thing.

[lcj]

This is why we need education reform. This is frightening to see this.

[karlomoharic]

So let me just get this straight, Chinese are making cheap, commonly avaliable aluminium & steel and you are pissed at them. I thought that USA was all about open & free market. Isn't the whole point of capitalism to make things cheaper and readily available.

[colinhoulder]

He neotiated new trade deals yet our deficit ballooned. Such a great negotiator.

[Admire]

Loved the part where they showed how many places produce parts in an iPhone.

[SchwerMetall]

The trade war impacted where I lived back in Texas where a South Korean electronics manufacturer was going to open in my hometown. However, due to the rise in costs of aluminum and cobalt as part of Trump's tariffs and trade policies, they chose to leave the lot and moved NA operations to somewhere in Canada. In their place was an Amazon warehouse which offered slightly more jobs but with vastly reduced wages... and then the pandemic hit and now it's just a lot covered in concrete as Amazon has pretty much canned to project. Meanwhile, the small businesses located in downtown had been slowly foreclosing but there were at least others able to take their place, when the pandemic hit about 1/2 of them have begun layoffs and foreclosing thanks to Trump's PPP being taken in by big businesses. From what my friends have told me, it's worse than it was in 2008 down there.
I don't know why anyone in the right mind would vote for Trump before, I don't see why anyone with a mind at all should vote for him again.