I don't like tariffs because they force me to pay more to buy something. And I do say me, which we all agree on, since we know for a fact that costs of goods get passed on to the end consumer, just like property tax increases get passed on to tenants.

The only people who tend to like them are domestic producers because it shields them from cheaper foreign competition. If you're making a product and charging $100 for it, but Country A is making it for $50, then I will buy from Country A. The way the tariff works is it increases the price of Country A's product to $125 so I will be more likely to buy the homemade version. Or in the case of something like repair parts for high performance European sports cars... there's simply no American alternatives, so no American business benefits AND I pay more for fixing my Porsche regardless! Stupid!

Tariffs fly in the face of free global trade, which has been instrumental in driving up overall world wealth. Don't kid yourself: the people who want them have connections and are looking to line their pockets by forcing you to overspend.

I don't like tariffs because they force me to pay more to buy something. And I do say me, which we all agree on, since we know for a fact that costs of goods get passed on to the end consumer, just like property tax increases get passed on to tenants.

The only people who tend to like them are domestic producers because it shields them from cheaper foreign competition. If you're making a product and charging $100 for it, but Country A is making it for $50, then I will buy from Country A. The way the tariff works is it increases the price of Country A's product to $125 so I will be more likely to buy the homemade version. Or in the case of something like repair parts for high performance European sports cars... there's simply no American alternatives, so no American business benefits AND I pay more for fixing my Porsche regardless!

Tariffs fly in the face of free global trade, which has been instrumental in driving up overall world wealth. Don't kid yourself: the people who want them have connections and are looking to line their pockets by forcing you to overspend.

I don't like tariffs because they force me to pay more to buy something. And I do say me, which we all agree on, since we know the costs of goods get passed on to the end consumer, just like property tax increases get passed on to tenants.

The only people who like them are domestic producers because it shields them from cheaper foreign competition. If you're making a product and charging $100 for it, but Country A is making it for $50, then I will buy from Country A. The way the tariff works is it increases the price of Country A's product to $125 so I will be more likely to buy the American version. Or in the case of something like repair parts for high performance European sports cars... there's simply no American version, so no American business benefits AND I still pay more for fixing my Porsche!

Tariffs fly in the face of free global trade, which has been instrumental in driving up overall world wealth. Don't kid yourself: the people who want them have connections and are looking to line their pockets by forcing us to overspend.

The stock market is going down so it's a buying opportunity if you like to dabble in it.

Real estate will follow but slower.

Invest in a S&P 500 ETF when the market is down 15%, then every 5% more down, invest more. Most recessions last 2 years so you'll buy some on the way down and eventually it will pull out of it since you should never underestimate the greed of wall st. When you've doubled your money in 4 or 5 years you pull it out and invest in the real estate that has been tanking for the last 4 years and exit the stock market since we are real estate investors and no one likes wall st.

Of course I am neither a stock broker, a financial advisor, nor do I have a crystal ball. Thus I could be totally wrong.

But I bet the tariffs are going to totally mess with the economy until business figures out a way around it. And all this upheaval will have unintended consequences that no one is smart enough to foresee.

If you were thinking of doing Roth conversions, this might be your sign that its the right time do do that with the value of your transfer smaller your taxes owed will be too.

Bought some TSLA. Love it when a stock plummets due to nothing related to the company's performance. Also, all this vandalism will keep Tesla's repair facility busy making Elon more money.

Seems silly to vandalize the only car made that has a sentry option, even sillier to park next to it when you do it so it can photograph your plate.

This makes investing easy. Short the stocks with high DEI scores and buy any stock where the CEO is deemed a Nazi.

These tariffs are going to hurt in the short term, but they open the door wide for trade negotiations and new industry coming into the US. He knows what he's doing. Why is it ok to be tariffed but not to tarif? Besides our country spends more than any other country by far. Not being able to sell in the US is worse to the other country than being nuked. It's a waiting game that we can afford to win. It's worth the short term hurt for the long term gain. Besides, think of all the new market opportunities current US businesses will have. There are certain countries where the US can not sell autos due to tariffs. About time we demanded a level playing field.

I feel that he is playing the long game for sure. In the end it will be for the best, but getting there stinks for me.

Higher prices and almost everything, even if it isn't tariff related because why not?

Since, by chance, I finally opened up a new Roth IRA and also moved my old 401k over to a financial planner this works out for me. Buying low finally. Hopefully I have enough time to make it worth it.

Fine by me. Other counties have been charging high tariffs on USA goods all along, and paying very low tariffs on things that they sell to America

We just had prices on everything doubled the last 4 years and were constantly reassured that the economy was great. So another small increase in some prices that will support American manufacturing and American jobs is OK with me.

And it is still not a done deal, It is a bargaining position and I believe America is going to come out very well in the end when it has all been settled,

Giving lots of free stuff to other counties has never worked to make them like us. So I am in favor of cutting way back on the freebies. Instead of "we buy your goods" while "you block our goods", lets see it put more in balance.

Um, lots of those countries absolutely were not "charging high tariffs" on goods sold to the USA. Don't believe the garbage written at the top of some poorly made chart that T was holding up. The numbers do NOT back that up.

Some of you people are lapping up the Flavor Aid here...

John, I've read a few articles of course they all say the opposite things. I saw the math equation that showed this isn't really about matching other countries tariffs on us but about trying to equalize the overall trade so that country's buy as much from us as we buy from them.

To me that is much different than tariffs. As someone else said here, many products are not made in the US anymore. I suppose one could make a case that we really should have manufacturing, but as we all know a government forcing the private sector to do something is not a good mechanism for that and is only going to cause unintended consequences.

If I had the money to open a manufacturing plant, and I saw an opening due to tariffs, I would also be calculating what if the tariffs go away? Then am I going to lose all my money on purchasing a property, retooling, acquiring equipment (that is also now heavily tariffed an overly expensive) hiring people with the right expertise, thanks for healthcare etc etc.

So if this whole thing is not really about tariffs but trying to bring about trade equilibrium, the greater question to me is can the US really compete with places like Vietnam, Cambodia, China on wage pricing in 2025?

Does the US really have the microchip capabilities that Taiwan, South Korea, all have etc. They are making our phones, iPads, and computers. Do I wish and want for us to be able to do that? Hell yeah!

Would I pay an extra $100 or $200 to buy American? Yes, If the product was good. But would I pay double? Not likely. Maybe for something super precision machined. Now we're talking about Germany's model. They have gotten away with charging a lot for their expertise and quality. But to be honest I don't even think most people would pay the extra hundred. So even with the tariffs are we guaranteed American manufacturing can produce quality components, much less survive in a marketplace that naturally has gone to globalization?

For an interesting read Google the Chicken Tax to understand why we don't have VW pickups in the US.

Also read about the last time (1930) the US went all in on Tariffs. Google Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act. Interesting reading

So many nauces. I'm for protecting our military and food domestic industries with Tariffs, but think competition is a good thing. Yet we should have a level playing field with some reasonable worker safety and you can't dump waste byproducts in the local stream... But then who is going police all of this... I think a lot of businesses are going to slow with a wait and see attitude. And consumer sediment is dropping. I think it'll be tough to avoid a recession.

I agree with William. When I saw Trump’s chart with so many countries with (full) percentages over 50%, I knew that couldn’t be the amount of tariffs other counties charged the US. William is correct. It’s basically based on the trade Deficit. That seems absurdly crazy to me. Why should we expect small countries with a population of 3% the US population or a country with low or very low standard of living to buy as much from us as they sell to us?

Since I don’t agree with Trump’s approach, I now expect a continuing stock market blood bath.

Robert, We go fishing in beautiful Ontario every year. As far as I know we will still be coming, spending money, and appreciating the great fisheries and resources.

I know a few Americans act like we can throw money around and we're better than others. I understand that dynamic as I see guys towing $200k boats and then acting like they own the place when the truth is we are guests and should act like it. Most Americans that I know are humble and down to earth, we have always viewed our Canadian neighbors as brothers.

Yes, there are some good things Trump is doing, but I think we all know what kind of attitude he has. What kind of American he is. Let's just say he's not one of the humble ones! He is a an over demanding pita type of guest that you're happy when they leave. There, I said the truth.

I could never really stand the guy myself, but cannot vote for Biden or Kamala. Their policies are far worse than Trump. Some say at least he is trying to make cuts, attempting to balance the budget etc. Well, if these tariffs tank the markets and spur recession, prolong inflation, it seems to me every single penny saved is overshadowed by the larger losses.

Unfortunately, the Democrats have gone so far into nutty territory that meant reasonable folks had no choice but to vote for DJT. I am really disappointed that the Republicans did not have the guts to stand up to him, but he bullied his way into power and all the guys like Rubio, Cruz, Pence (first time) just cowtowed. They froze in fear.

So yeah, we voted for the guy because it was the only choice, but believe me - most of us didn't vote to take over Canada as 51st state, start trade wars, or sink the markets and economy.

That's the problem with having a figurehead like Trump, he's too unpredictable and chaotic. Hopefully the Republicans learn their lesson. Get back to core conservative principles.

You mention Reagan. Exactly. Trump is the furthest thing from that. But, Trump is no dummy, you bet you *** he is watching the markets. He understands that people will turn on him if he doesn't reign it in. He is all talk, bluster. He will use the tariffs to negotiate. I bet they'll go away when he realizes it's not working. But he will not admit defeat. Smoke and mirrors, pay attention over here! Being a real estate guy myself I used to look up to him, read his books.

Turns out he isn't such a great negotiator. He's a demander. Do it my way or else. Negotiation through raw power. I disagree with that method, it just pis ses people off, and as you see on your store shelves it's not very popular to buy from the US. Who is going to make up the loss and sales worldwide? The math does not add up. The American companies, cities loss of tourism, airlines loss of tickets, WE are going to be the ones who pay.

It would be different if we made products that no one else made and had to buy from us, or if we had beaches and cities that you can find nowhere else. I'm afraid that is Trump's mindset. That is really what he thinks. But even if it were true, most Americans do not believe we are better than the rest of the world or that we don't need anyone else. It's extremely frustrating to have this guy at the helm negotiating with everyone else and seeing this happen in real time when it didn't have to happen at all.

His methods do not working the real world for hard-working people who build their empires as many of the people on this form have from the ground up. How many of us have multiple bankruptcies? Trump is really good at taking huge risks and so is Musk. They have big cajones. Sometimes it takes a personality like that to get big changes through. But they are acting like this is all some game.

I understand Trump is bluffing, he would never let the markets crash on purpose as it would make his own legacy look bad. He is all about himself looking good this would be too easy for everyone to connect the dots "Trump policies cause world depression" in the history books. He doesn't want that! But I think he has no idea what he is really messing with. If it does go up in flames, there is no turning back.

I can only hope some senior advisors can talk enough sense about how he himself and his reputation will suffer. Trump is not a long game guy he wants things to happen fast. So expect things to calm down in the next 3 weeks. I would put money on that.

That's what Trump does causes chaos, create a "solution" to his own chaos, then people are thankful for the "stability" that he created. That's how it has worked in the past anyway for him. Unfortunately for him, doing it on this level is getting a little too obvious in making too many people nervous. People are starting to see through him. He won't like that, as he will see that as disrespect. That is what worries me. If he gets the feeling everyone is against him, instead of doing what he was going to do (get rid of the tariffs) he may switch, pull a 180 and decide to keep them just to prove everyone else that he is the savior.

Jeremy while I agree with a lot of what you said, don't take it all on us. The Canadian PM was a disaster for 10 years, and when they had the chance, they elected a guy who doesn't even live there...it's a cluster right now.

One of two things happen:

1. Countries cave and drop their tariffs so we drop ours .... that's good

The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, also known as the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, was a US law that significantly raised import duties on a wide range of goods, aiming to protect American farmers and businesses but ultimately worsened the Great Depression by hindering international trade.

Here's a more detailed explanation:

Purpose:

The act was intended to protect American farmers and businesses from foreign competition by increasing tariffs on agricultural and industrial goods.

Key Supporters:

It was sponsored by Republican Senator Reed Smoot of Utah and Republican Representative Willis Hawley of Oregon.

Timing:

The act was signed into law by President Herbert Hoover in June 1930, at the start of the Great Depression.

Impact:

Increased Tariffs: The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act raised import duties on a wide range of goods, leading to a significant increase in the cost of imported goods.

Worsened the Great Depression: The act is widely blamed for exacerbating the Great Depression by hindering international trade and leading to retaliatory tariffs from other countries.

Reduced Global Trade: The high tariffs led to a sharp decline in global trade, as countries retaliated with their own tariffs, further damaging the global economy.

Long-Term Trade Policies: The act highlighted the dangers of protectionist trade policies and led to a shift towards more flexible and negotiated trade agreements in the future.

Legacy:

I have looked into this a bit more. Trying to keep the politics and motivations out of it to get to brass tax of what are we doing here and why.

Trump has been talking about tariffs and US getting ripped off for a long long time, since the 80's or 90's I believe. So he's the guy setting course, but the economists he chose are the people who have to make sense of it. Stephen Miran is one of the guys making the case. Look at the papers "Activist Treasury Issuance and the

Tug-of-War Over Monetary Policy" and one from just after the election in Nov 2024 "A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System".

Hopefully these will show up. Here are a few interviews with him that helped me on you tube:

watch?v=Y7xgflaj01M&ab_channel=MercatusCenter (first paper "Activist Treasury")

watch?v=65aE9KFMR3Y&ab_channel=ForwardGuidance (second paper "A users Guide")

First thing, these are not idiots. It makes sense what he says about the Triffin tipping point. The dollar being the worlds currency causes it to become overvalued, we can't compete on trade which leads to trade deficits and ultimately undermines our position over time. But what they are doing here is still all very questionable and fast moving. Seems ripe for mistakes.

There are different motives than what are being explained. Whether it is smart or needed, we are certainly not doing a great job of selling it. I mentioned the math equation they used and the reciprical tariff rationale was not adding up. Ok, so this is actually about trade defecits. However, it has also become clear that the trade defecits math they used were only calculated usings goods, but not services.

The US exports more services and imports more goods. So even if one agreed with the calculation, why leave that out?

One of the more interesting takes is that these economic advisors (also see Ray Dalio's ideas) are actually trying to create enough chaos into forcing the hand of the FED to reduce interest rates to stabilize the economy. By doing that, Trump can then refinance gov't debt at lower rates and pay less debt expense.

I guess that makes sense given his real estate background. Obviously that would be good if thats what happens, but to buy into that take seems like you gotta crawl pretty far out on the limb. Heavy risk. Do we really know what we're doing and think we can tamper, pressing buttons like its a machine, to get the results we want without causing unintended consequences? Of course thats kind of what the FED does do, but clearly its very complex when you do one thing (print money for ex) there is a negative thing that happens later (inflation & housing prices become unnafordable for many common Americans).

Another interesting take is that the first round of tariffs on China alone did not work because they basically sold to other countries that then sold to us. This is was 2018. So thats why in 2025 this time around they are operating in a way to hit everyone. Then China has no secondary markets. From their perspective I get it, but again what about destabilization that will occur worldwide? A huge bargaining chip the US has is allowing access to our markets. That was a lot larger of a chip in the 20th century btw, now China and India are catching up and the EU is huge too.

Perhaps the largest part of what the vision is coming from, and something that most folks likely agree with, is the US messed up big time by offshoring all of our manufacturing capability. Globalization was not in our best interest from all standpoints. In the event of war, we would be completely unprepared. But they can't really say that out loud.

So you get this tariff talk of "reciprical", but the end result is the math equation has nothing to do with "we do it to them they do it to us". The end result is the only way to reduce tariffs is to form and agreement to buy more American products - which means we have to start manufacturing back up. There is also talk of ship building specifically and Trump himself has harped on that. Shipbuilding? Sounds like a concern navally.

While it does make sense that the tariffs are being used as a precursor to these other negotiations, it does make one wonder how much damage are we also doing to our reputation and relationships with other countries. Creating chaos and angering the world is not the best climate to then ask people "Hey do you want to be on our team"?

This also had some good insights in a more dumbed down version than the economist papers and interviews "The Global Reset Just Started" you tube: watch?v=wMQBG0cy-uE&ab_channel=AndreiJikh

The deeper I get, it does seem like we are getting into some very risky territory. This generation and our country has no idea what a world looks like where we are not the primary superpower. Another more brutal way of looking at this is we're about to give China a huge opportunity to come out looking more reasonable than us! If they play their cards right, they could capitalize and make trade and military protection agreements with other countries before Trump gets to have this play out how he wants it to.

What would be really bad is if all of these risks and chaos lead to the dollar losing its status as the worlds Global Reserve currency. In the best of circumstances, it does sound like these economists are trying to reshuffle the system. A hard reset. They seem to think they can a) bring back some manufacturing b) retain world currency status c) create new teams (alliances) d)refinance our huge debt at lower while also e) limiting the economic effects (mini recession)

That is A LOT of goals! Too many goals? Again, the more I find out, it does feel like they are essentially gambling. This is my best attempt to try and understand what they might be thinking. This is giving a huge amount of benefit of the doubt. It does not leave me with resounding belief when the best case scenario is that what we're about to do is head to the roulette wheel. Worst case scenario is much more bleak. I will reserve judgement to the extend possible but it is getting harder and harder not to question these moves and wonder how long until Trump is reeled in (and can he be?)

Your property taxes are going to go way up.... why? Taxes pay for infrastructure...as well as other things

And

Dodge:

thanks for the references to Smoot Hawley, I will look into that. From a long time ago, but history matters.

Robert:

We absolutely do not hate Canadians! Come on. Don't know what Trump is doing but its a horrible job of conveying that when he keeps talking like we do. It makes zero sense, except that I did see that picture of Melania ooogling Trudeau. Would Trump really be that vindictive to blame a country for making him feel insecure?

It's interesting about the 2018 situation how China just got around the rules by selling to our neighbors. From the administrations perspective that makes more sense why Trump first decided to get Mexico and Canada out of the way. Again, not agreeing with this, just trying to understand it.

Wmh:

Yes Trudeau was a disaster. Good riddance. Clearly most Canadians felt the same.

Oregon & Woodsmoke:

The problem with that chart was the math. For Ex: we slapped tariff on Australia, they didn't tariff us at all. So what we're doing is not reciprical. The chart was about trade deficits, and only took into account goods (US exports more services).

Phil & Ray:

Thats what I'm worried about! I agree.

Rehabs, property taxes, absolutely! And do you think ins companies are gonna let us off? I just raised rents. Realized, at least where I'm at, I can't even push the amounts up to where they need to be. I have good people, with all this uncertainty I can't push it. I raised them between $30-60 a month. I'll be doing it again next year and likely the year after. But still just to keep pace with infation from a couple years ago!

I did lose a good tenant over it already. They said they couldn't afford it, would have to find another place. Fair enough. I wanted to keep them, but had to let them go. Luckily, I found another person but time will tell how good they are.

Another tenant was going to move, looked around and realized they have a good deal already. So they got a roomate to help with rent and bills. That's a college degreed man in his late 30's, has an ok job, fairly smart doesn't over spend, yet he needs to accept a stranger into his place. Ouch. But hey, I told him good move, that's what you have to do. He will make it work.

At a certain point though, we all know theres not too much more room until we're at the ceiling on rents. Where I'm at in the midwest at least. In fact, we're d amn near there now I would say. Even if I don't raise rents next year, I would not be suprised if I get more notices to move out. And these are not luxury, they are class B units but in safe decent areas. The next step is tenants will move to less desired neighborhoods and will be stuffing more people in the units. Maybe thats the phase people need to go through, and we as a country need to go through.

When one looks at the value of the dollar, at lifestyle and the fact that housing is getting unnafordable, thats when regular people start listening to the idiot voices like AOC. If the pendulum swings back, watch out.

The point being, I think we're already at the point where us landlords will not be able to pass on much if any increases for a while. Wages do not support it. If property taxes increase or insurance company renewal hammers us, we have no choice but to eat some of it, maybe even most of it.

I imagine this is exactly what a lot of CEOs and businesses are trying to figure out. How can we eliminate costs? Shrinkflation. Get rid of batteries. My experience is we have squeezed all the juice out of the lemon. Even if we drive over it with a car, no more juice is coming out. So whatever happens with state, local govt, school referendums, we can expect raised taxes and ins, as well as cost to maintain and fix our units. But with little help.

And then, after all this, how is Trump also going to justify tax cuts? If we go into recession (even "mini" recession) people stop spending. Domino effect. It's all connected but messing things up over here means bad things over there.

Already seems to be working. The tariffs on foreign nations were based off a combination of things, their tariffs against us, currency manipulation, and trade imbalances. While not directly tariffs, they all serve the same purpose, cheating us. And those are the things, besides Canada's open drug border, and all the legal issues and economic issues imposed by China, he's trying to fix.

Cheating us? Do one held a gun to our heads. We exchanged American dollars for products. So we have a bunch of goods and other countries hold American dollars. How well those dollars hold their value may change drastically in the future due to our govments spending habits. One could argue that we've even abused the position of being a reserve currency (especially when we abandoned the gold standard)

The jig is up. Everyone knows T was bluffing, but the biggest observation for me is this whole entire mess was self induced.

The problem is our country didn't need the chaos, but our Pres needed the attention/ adoration. So as we all just saw, he did what was best for him. He could have implemented the tariffs slowly and gradually. I'm sure his advisors all told him to do that. But nah "I know more than you all". Why did he do it this way instead? Not for our country but to make a name for himself. He is grandiose on another level. He needs us all to reaffirm his greatness because he doesn't believe in himself. I understand why we were attracted to him in the first place, he was an entertainer, you didn't know what he was going to say and it was kind of fun watching him speak "truth to power". But at this stage, the jig is up. If you really research him and look into his history, the bankruptcies the high risk taking, what he's doing right now is a long those same lines. No he's got us in a game of chicken with the world. Yes that riled the markets. I don't think anybody feels very stable anymore. I also don't think this is what we voted for.

Our needs and his needs don't line up.

He finally blinked, but not before causing a huge panic, uprooting our position of authority, and untold damage that we will only know the full scope of in time.

Hang on everyone, this ain't gonna be fun.

Trump will never admit that he's been gaslighting the entire country, that he's been feeding us all lies. More and more people are finding out they are lies. Not only about what's possible, but also his own incapabilities. We got a guy driving the bus who told us he won NASCAR, but doesn't know how to steer.

I agree that American mfg is needed and will be beneficial. That will happen, but the truth is it's gonna take years. Govt cannot control the pricing when the market dictates

Labor is 10x less. There will be areas we can compete on, but it will not be everything. A real world example is Germany. They have manufacturing, but focus on higher end stuff.

The real question is:

Who is going to buy goods made in the US at the prices we will have to charge? Maybe some US citizens, but many US citizens are doing so poorly that they cannot afford that. On a very basic level the entire reason globalization happened is because people won't spend $900 on a TV they can get for $500. We won't be able to sell our products to most of the globe. It will basically be us, Canada, and Europe. You mentioned economic relationships. Of the groups I just mentioned look at what Trump is doing to those relationships. Are we projecting that we're better than them and don't need them or that we want to form alliances? I don't know about Europe but I do know that many Canadians are actually pretty ticked off. We will see the impact this has hopefully it is short-term.

But again this is coming from our own leadership, the truth is he's been messing up business relationships and making life harder for US companies. He's making people not want to by our debt. The reason he capitulated on the tariffs so quickly was not because he wanted to or had that game plan, he was so short sighted on this entire endeavor that once he realized the bond market was cratering, that forced his hand. That's who's leading us!!

It's great that the plant that laid you off re-opened Jason. I am happy about that. Trump is playing the short game however. He can't stick to a plan. He switches gears so often it's whatever he feels will benefit him most in the moment. It doesn't inspire confidence and it's no way to lead.

My point is we gotta stop the nonsense cult worship. We gotta start to get honest here about who he is, what type of guy he is, and what his plans are. His actions have shown who is. He tells us he's a tough boss who will MAGA, that he is a savior. Whether we continue believing him is on us. My view is time to move on from Trump.

I also wanted to say my purpose is not to ruffle feathers here on this board. I mainly was writing because I had the perspective of what all this is doing to relationships. I have had some great relationships formed in Canada from years of fishing. If they we're treating us like this we would all be pretty unhappy. I have learned a lot on this board and I don't mean to cause disharmony.

I have just have enough of Trump. We have Congress in the Senate and I don't want to see us piss this opportunity away to make some real changes and get deficits under control. We probably agree on way more than we disagree but at the end of the day, I respect that we all want the best for America. I started off as a trump guy myself, and like I said I can see the appeal.

Overtime I have changed my opinions on him and now I see him in a completely different light. I know that's not a popular sentiment yet. So part of what I'm saying is, I do respect all of you guys here, but it's okay to show dissatisfaction with what we're seeing here. He doesn't want that. Doesn't want any negative feedback, even if it should be coming his way. That's the part that really got me to see what's going on here.

We have a front seat and it ain't pretty. If you're noticing things that you don't like, it's important to speak up. Not to be rude or caused disharmony within the party, but Trump is the one who caused this entire situation. His personality is such that he bullies people into being quiet. We all saw the little Rubio and how he talked to Walker, it's just his personality. He bullies people. If that were used for the good of the country, I wouldn't care as much. But the point being if we see stuff we don't like, and we stay quiet about it hoping that he has some master plan, we're going to really be kicking ourselves.

I also wanted to say my purpose is not to ruffle feathers here on this board. I mainly was writing because I had the perspective of what all this is doing to relationships. I have had some great relationships formed in Canada from years of fishing. If they we're treating us like this we would all be pretty unhappy. I have learned a lot on this board and I don't mean to cause disharmony.

I have just have enough of Trump. We have Congress in the Senate and I don't want to see us piss this opportunity away to make some real changes and get deficits under control. We probably agree on way more than we disagree but at the end of the day, I respect that we all want the best for America. I started off as a trump guy myself, and like I said I can see the appeal.

Overtime I have changed my opinions on him and now I see him in a completely different light. I know that's not a popular sentiment yet. So part of what I'm saying is, I do respect all of you guys here, but it's okay to show dissatisfaction with what we're seeing here. He doesn't want that. Doesn't want any negative feedback, even if it should be coming his way. That's the part that really got me to see what's going on here.

We have a front seat and it ain't pretty. If you're noticing things that you don't like, it's important to speak up. Not to be rude or caused disharmony within the party, but Trump is the one who caused this entire situation. His personality is such that he bullies people into being quiet. We all saw the little Rubio and how he talked to Walker, it's just his personality. He bullies people. If that were used for the good of the country, I wouldn't care as much. But the point being if we see stuff we don't like, and we stay quiet about it hoping that he has some master plan, we're going to really be kicking ourselves.

You're not the only one who has soured on his narcissistic and grifting ways. Not to mention pulling security clearances on people is a complete prick move. Dangerous precedent.