Enough with the gaslighting

It’s hard to decide what’s funnier: the well supported theory flying around the internet that Trump used ChatGPT to generate his simpleton’s “world tariff chart,” OR how Fox News is bending itself into a pretzel trying to put lipstick on our dipshit president’s “Liberation Day” pig. Under Trump’s new global tariffs, American consumers will pay an additional $6 trillion in taxes– tariffs imposed on imported goods they buy every day like shoes and avocados– over a ten year period. This amount, along with alleged savings from DOGE’s chainsaw excision of half the government, will be used to pay for Trump’s second round of $4.5 trillion tax cuts for the rich. It is a massive redistribution of wealth, taking from the poor to line the pockets of the wealthy donors who put Trump back in office for that express purpose. When you consider that the people who can least afford it will suffer and pay the most under Trump’s moronic tariffs, none of it is really funny. Trump used his idiot sharpie and drew himself a tariff chart with Chatbot AI.Trump has been teasing tariffs for months. After imposing, then withdrawing, then imposing, then withdrawing tariffs on our best friends and neighbors last month, he almost kind of had the start of a concept of a tariff policy last week. To launch it, true to his reality TV roots, Trump set the announcement to great fanfare, calling a press conference to unveil his shiny new plan. He branded the whole thing, and spent more time marketing “Liberation Day” than he spent developing any underlying substance.It shows. The simplistic tariff chart prop he foisted on the media looked like an after thought, likely because it was. I started getting text messages from colleagues when the clownshow started. “He generated that table with ChatBot!” one guy texted. “Good one,” I reponded. “No, I’m serious,” he said. “NFW,” I wrote. Then another colleague sent me basically the same thing.The theory flying around the internet, supported by convincing evidence, is that Trump threw his simplistic chart together using basic AI from ChatGPT. When pundits commanded the program to “make easy tariff policy,” they got the same answers spit out on Trump’s tariff chart: 03 high, Gemini 2.5 pro, Claude 3.7, and Grok all gave the same answers to the question, “how to impose tariffs easily.” Political writer Steve Bonnell said about the ChatGPT chart, on X, “I think they asked ChatGPT to calculate the tariffs from other countries, which is why the tariffs make absolutely no f—-ing sense. They’re simply dividing the trade deficit we have with a country with our imports from that country, or using 10 percent, whichever is greater.” Writer James Surowiecki posted that he was able to reverse-engineer Trump’s exact method using a simple AI formula, describing it as “extraordinary nonsense” that offered a dangerously simplistic view of global trade economics.Trump officials lied, claiming they calculated complexities they didn’tTrump officials repeatedly lied about the method used to calculate Trump’s tariff rates, claiming that for every targeted economy, “tariff and non tariff barriers” and policies were analyzed, assessed and quantified individually. What BS. As ChatGPT makes clear, market nuances were not quantified, and nothing was considered over than the macro-simplistic dollar amounts. Decidedly NOT considered in Trump’s tariffs: currency fluctuations, currency manipulation, labor variables, VAT taxes, reciprocal licensing, subsidies, pre-existing and negotiated product-specific tariffs, geopolitical sanctions, and transportation costs. There’s no strategy here folks, it’s an across the board, moronic attack on the world economy.Trump’s First grade-level tariff plan overlooks the services sectorWorse than these foundational flaws, Trump’s tariff plan completely ignores the service sector, where American firms enjoy a huge surplus, now in jeopardy. Google AI, when asked the question, “what is the US service sector trade imbalance?” reports, “The U.S. has a trade surplus in services, meaning it exports more services than it imports,” offering a more detailed breakdown:·Services Trade Surplus: The U.S. consistently runs a surplus in its services trade, meaning it exports more services than it imports. ·2023 Performance: In 2023, the U.S. exported $1.02 trillion in services, up 8% from the previous year, and imported $748.2 billion, resulting in a service sector surplus of $278 billion. ·In 2024, the service sector surplus increased to $293.3 billion. Its as if Trump and his clowncar cabinet of advisors don’t understand the role the US service sector plays in US and global economies, in legal, accounting, consulting, R&D, architecture, engineering, lending, insurance, technology networks, cloud computing, data storage, and software licenses. Fox News has to figure out how to praise the falling stock market or blame it on BidenGlobal markets expressed their outrage by delivering a crash that eliminated over $3 trillion in market value. World leaders continue to express their outrage over Trump’s economic suicide, sounding the alarm over tarrifs so stupid they look like intentional sabotage. International scorn and derision were swift and unapologetic. China imposed a retaliatory 34% tariff on the US, stating, “There are no winners in trade wars, and there is no way out for protectionism.” EU’s commissioner said, “President Trump’s announcement of universal tariffs on the whole world, including the EU, is a major blow to the world economy… Uncertainty will spiral… consequences will be dire for millions of people around the globe.” Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, “Trump’s tariffs are fundamentally wrong and an attack on a trade system that has created prosperity all round the world — itself an American achievement.” Australia’s Prime Minister said Trump’s tariffs were “not the act of a friend,” noting hat Trump’s tariffs singled out tiny, far-flung territories, including islands full of penguins but no people.Fox viewers won’t hear, read, or see any of that. As world markets crashed and global leaders predicted catastrophic consequences, the folks over at Fox News focused on what’s in everyone else’s underpants, and how strong Trump, the “New Sheriff in town” looked when he “warned” governors who “defy his orders.” Not covering the actual news, Fox on Friday delivered these disinformation gems:· Secretary of State Rubio stands up to European leaders, says Trump is ‘absolutely right’· House Democrat admits his own party is moving in the ‘wrong direction’ on trade· US economy adds stronger-than-expected 228K jobs in MarchEnough with the gaslightingFox propaganda aside, JP Morgan is now predicting a 60 percent chance of a recession by year’s end, reporting that “This year’s 22-percentage tariff increase amounts to the largest tax hike since 1968.” The report continues, “The effect of this tax hike is likely to be magnified, through retaliation, a slide in U.S. business sentiment, and supply chain disruptions… We emphasize that these policies, if sustained, would likely push the U.S. and possibly global economy into recession this year.” They also warn that, “recessions are inherently unpredictable… sustained restrictive trade policies and reduced immigration flows may impose lasting supply costs that will lower U.S. growth over the long run.” The Wall Street Journal reports that Thursday’s loss of more than $3 trillion in market value will likely continue to worsen.Financial markets, predictably, have the jitters. Despite Trump’s messaging that, “tariffs are tax cuts,” everyone else knows tariffs are a regressive tax, paid by consumers. By all indicators, Trump still doesn’t grasp the complexities needed to drive a strategic tariffs and trade package. He still thinks tariffs are worth the economic damage because he doesn’t understand either end of the formula: the tariffs or the resulting economic costs, and says he “couldn’t care less” about the price of cars.Like a toddler with a singular focus on his neighbor’s toy, Trump has been so fixated on 19th century tariffs he has silenced rational economic discussion. What we’re left with is a child’s tariff chart Alexis could have spit out, leaving economists with their heads spinning.Sabrina Haake is a 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her columns are published in Alternet, Chicago Tribune, MSN, Out South Florida, Raw Story, Salon, Smart News and Windy City Times. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.

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