Opinion Trump’s tariffs: Friends with few benefits and foes with plenty Peter Hartcher Political and international editor April 8, 2025 Illustration by Dionne GainCredit: Donald Trump holds up his chart of “reciprocal tariffs” at the announcement event in Washington.Credit: Getty Images On “Liberation Day”, Trump announced a tariff on Australia and Britain of 10 per cent, the lowest rate levied on any of the 180 nations on Trump’s list. Farrell describes the administration’s processes as “febrile”. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that “the world as we knew it has gone”. The word from Washington back to Canberra was that Trump’s trade adviser, Pete Navarro – the ideologue behind the program of universal tariffs – had got to Trump and insisted on “there will be no tariff exemptions”. This zeal for omni-tariffs helps explain Trump’s bizarre overreach – imposing a 10 per cent tariff on places such as the British Indian Ocean Territory, a remote archipelago where the only economic activity is a US military base on the island of San Diego. The American magazine New Republic headlined the news this way: “Stable Genius Trump Just Put Tariffs on a US Military Base”. And, famously, on penguin colonies – the uninhabited Heard and McDonald islands, part of Australia’s Antarctic territory. This was Australia’s revenge – it exposed the tariff plan to endless ridicule across the internet. Albanese said: “Nowhere on Earth is safe.” Trump did grant exemptions. While all of America’s allies were hit, four of America’s traditional enemies received zero “reciprocal” tariffs. The four? Russia, Belarus, North Korea and Cuba. How could it be that uninhabited islands are hit yet violent aggressor states such as Russia, its ally Belarus, nuclear rogue state North Korea and perpetual US pariah Cuba get special treatment? Two of these, Russia and North Korea, last month were named in the annual threat assessment by the US intelligence community as posing the greatest nation-state dangers to America, together with China and Iran. Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Russia was spared because it had no trade with the US. This is not true. Two-way goods trade last year amounted to $US3.5 billion, according to US government statistics, which is more trade than America does with many of the countries on the tariffs hit list. A White House spokesperson said that Cuba, Belarus and North Korea were exempted because existing tariffs and sanctions on them were already so high. Yet other countries subject to crippling US sanctions, such as Iran, were slapped with an extra 10 per cent “reciprocal” tariff last week. So these explanations are unconvincing. Peter Tesch, former Australian ambassador to Russia and a former deputy secretary for defence, says of these attempts at justification: “It’s a superficial ‘out’ for what’s obviously a political decision. It is telling; you could make that case for a dozen countries.” So why these four? Vladimir Putin, says Tesch, continues to receive special favour from Trump because of what he calls Trump’s “theological” identification with the Russian dictator, and Belarus because of its closeness to Russia. Putin might have sought from Trump a mark of favour for North Korea and Cuba, he speculates, because he is in an alliance with Pyongyang against Ukraine and is improving ties with Cuba. Whatever the explanation, one of the few people with a positive word for Trump’s tariff program was leading Putin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, a TV host on Russia-1. He lauded Trump’s tariff program for “striking a devastating blow against the West”. His program proposed building a monument to Trump in Moscow. It seems unlikely there will be any erected in any Western capital.
Trump thinks that Nazis were nice to their captives. 'Nazis did nice things for their captives?' Trump's flippant remark leaves critics aghast https://www.rawstory.com/trump-israel-presser/ "Trump's apparent implication that the Nazis "liked" some of their Jewish death camp inmates and "helped" the ones that were "in unbelievable distress" sparked confusion and fury from commenters on social media."
At the moment, China is destroying itself with the retaliatory tariffs. They certainly aren't hurting The US or Trump. They would do well to come to the table like you are seeing other countries doing.
Many German prisoners said some guards and citizens were more sympathetic sneaked in food which was against the rules Did they give you a piece of bread extra? Did they give you a meal on the side? Like what happened in Germany, what happened elsewhere? People would try and help people that were in unbelievable distress.
Yeah... how did this work out for the millions the Nazis put in the gas chambers at the camps? BTW -- did you know that Trump is working to set up camps with private prison companies. Except they are struggling to call them something other than "camps". You know because concentration camps and re-education camps have some bad historic connotations. Maybe you can help the administration in selecting a new term.
That take smells like it was microwaved straight from Pyongyang. Expect the usual, losses rebranded as wins, reality twisted, and Trump walking off with the only prize that matters to him... attention. Meanwhile in Basil, Switzerland which the USA runs a trade surplus with... That's a lot of effort to make dozens of giant middle finger costumes, have to give it to the Swiss there.
Quote from the dear leader during Bibi's recent visit. "I said to [the former hostages], was there any sign of love?" said Trump. "Did Hamas show any signs of, like, help or liking you? Did they give you a piece of bread extra? Did they give you a meal on the side? Like what happened in Germany, what happened elsewhere? People would try and help people that were in unbelievable distress. They said no."