Trump, Tariffs and Trade-Offs

Why the tariff worriers should pause and think

People – and markets – have been going hysterical over Trump’s tariffs. As usual, opinions range from ‘he’s evil Hitler’ to ‘he’s lost his mind’ – and my favorite: ‘he’s dumb and ignorant.’

I expect that once again, Trump will be vindicated and lolbert social media ‘analysts’ and ‘experts’ ridiculed.

This essay will make the case for Tariffs as a necessary trade off:

1. It’s a new game, with new scorecard

2. Quality > Quantity

3. Nation & spirit > economy and materialism

I should also note: I don’t ackshually know if I’m right or wrong or how this pans out. To some degree, we’ll all some version of this guy:

Funny… and still true

But still, that’s never stopped me from adding my 2c. So let’s dive in!!

The case for tariffs

Tariffs are a tool

I don’t want to spend too much time on this as it’s not the point of this essay, but…

To start with, those who had never heard the word ‘tariff’ before or think Trump must have invented them should realize pretty much EVERY country on Earth has had some form of tariff in place forever, and the markets have had no problem adapting to this. This is not new.

Tariffs are an economic and geopolitical tool of the state and while other countries seem to have little reservations when deploying them against the US, apparently everyone panics when the US decides to do the same.

The reality of the world we live in is that states (which will ALWAYS exist) own a territory and control its borders. It’s their prerogative to decide who comes in and who doesn’t, and so too which product enters and which doesn’t.

The fact that in recent decades American – and more broadly, Western – so-called ‘leadership’ has abdicated these responsibilities does not change anything about this reality. If anything, it reinforces the point.

Austrian types are right… in theory

That being said, economists are essentially right when they say that tariffs disrupt international trade, the established production chains and capital flows, which in turn creates a lot of uncertainty, to which the markets often react violently.

They’re also right to say tariffs are a form of tax: of course, prices for the affected goods will increase in the territory which places tariffs; and yes, that price is eventually paid by the consumer.

So: Yes, tariffs always imply pain in the short term.
No, tariffs are not an optimal economic decision in a perfect world.

I don’t think anyone serious disagrees with these statements. If you’re optimizing for material growth, GDP and ‘economic efficiencies’ tariffs are certainly a counter-productive move.

But… when Trump miraculously dodged that bullet, we entered a new paradigm that the purely economic or theoretical mind cannot yet comprehend.

It’s a new game

What are we optimizing for?

I posted a long tweet on this whole tariff situation the other day where I asked the following question: What are we optimizing for? Is it GDP and NgU, or Civilization and Culture?

A country is so much more than an economic zone.

The word Nation comes natio, which means ‘shared birth’. A nation is at once a people, their ancestry and legacy, and the relationship between them and their territory. Everyone knows this; not even intellectually, but instinctively, viscerally. Just travel abroad for a bit, and you’ll realize just how real ethnic, cultural and national differences are.

And yet over the last few decades Western countries have become more and more economic zones, instead of Nations. They’ve become proverbial “multicultural melting pots” that are no longer representative of the culture or people whose name they bear.

The goal of their ‘elites’ is not to make sure their people thrive – that they can save for a home or enjoy safe streets – but to make ‘GDP NumberGoUp’ and keep their pals on Wall Street and the deep state apparatus happy and in power. Print fake money, import cheap goods and cheap labor, make themselves richer and impoverish the people by sucking up their time and vital energy. Then rinse and repeat.

The US, in particular, has suffered (and benefited) from this more than any other nation because the USD is the global reserve currency. Having a reserve currency comes with perks. You can export inflation and keep the economic Ponzi scheme going for much longer without suffering hyperinflation. But it also comes with a long-term cost. It hollows out and financializes your economy.

The US is one giant consoomer junkie mixed with a degenerate gambler. People are either obsessed with the latest trend and queuing to get the latest iPhone – which adds nothing new to the one from the year before – or they’re spending their time gambling on the stock market and shitcoins or – wait for it – paying for pizza in installments! #innovation

The truth of the matter is that decades of open borders policy – for both people and goods – coupled with the benefit of a money printer, have not only put countless American companies out of business and destroyed countless American jobs: they have predictably hollowed out the very core of American culture. Import the Third World – and its cheap goods – get the Third World.

The American nation is sick, poisoned by a cabal of moochers and looters, and to recover what it needs is not positive quarter results for its biggest corporations, but a detox. A real hardcore reset, that will necessarily feel uncomfortable; but is the only way for the American genius to flourish once again.

Often, maintaining civilization requires sacrificing profit and economic efficiencies, and putting the (really) long term before the short and medium term. It is about putting the ethereal and spiritual before the material. Cathedrals were never economic decisions: that’s why their eternal beauty still fascinates us. They were not meant to earn a return for investment, but to make the whole city wealthier – in the true sense of the word – not richer.

We’ve let the merchants and money people lead us for a long time – and yes, initially that resulted in economic growth and even, for a time, cultural greatness. But we paid a price for that. We got rich, but we became shallow. In time the traders, moochers and looters carved out a permanent position at the top for themselves and structured our great Western Civilisation around growth, gains and GDP.

It’s time to take back the reins and put Beauty, Culture and Nation first.

The new game is NOT about optimizing for GDP or ‘growth for the sake of growth’: it’s about Nation, Culture, Civilization. And Trump’s tariffs are NOT an economic decision. The ends no longer justify the means.

It’s the fact they’re an openly uneconomical decision that matters. Remember, Trump’s campaign was about Making America Great Again – not about Making America Make Wall Street Richer… Again.

Dealing a new hand

The Liberal Order is dead.

The game is no longer ‘Let’s spread the good word about free trade and capitalism around the world so that we may all grow together’. This is a new game: adapt or die. In this new paradigm, all your theoretical models are out of the window. This is now about home turf.

It's naive to think that we're all just going to get along because ‘muh free trade’. There are larger forces at play here and trade is also a weapon in the modern world. We're in the 21st century, power players no longer fight overtly kinetic wars: they fight through money and politics. This is how China fights, and has been winning. While weak Western politicians sell off their people and their land, China has been preserving its people and growing its domestic industrial base.

The Chinese and the Russians have no qualms about putting their people and culture, their Nation, first. Why should the US (or any other nation for that matter) be any different?

The war is happening right now, and Trump has long been the American politician uniquely equipped to fight it. And now he has his General Patton, in the form of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. And the best part?? They don’t have to fire a single bullet to win.

The whole point of the tariffs is not to please Wall St but to force a reset of the geopolitical board. America still has the most chips, and the best hand. Trump is playing it with the express intent to benefit and protect the American spirit and people. That’s his job.

(As I get ready to publish this, I’m reading that Trump is now lifting tariffs for 90 days ONLY for those countries that did not retaliate… Genius – know who your true friends are.)

Why that is so hard for some to understand is beyond me… but is probably related to the color of their portfolio.

The Crossroads

The US is uniquely positioned to do this right now. Another term of money printing, Wall Street gambling and offshoring the American productive base and I don’t think the US would have a hand left to play. By 2030 it would be a hollowed out husk.

In the 80’s Japan faced a similar situation to that of the US today. Faced with an asset bubble, they could have taken the ‘Bidenomics’ road and flooded the country with cheap goods and cheap labor. Instead, they chose Nation over GDP NumberGoUp: they closed borders, protected Japanese wages, ensured ethnic and cultural cohesion and put their people first.

They had the courage to choose Nation over economics. Fast forward a few decades and while Japan may not be the same economic beast it once was, it’s one of top 3 safest, cleanest and most civilized places on Earth. Contrast that with India, for example, whose GDP and economic growth exceeds Japan’s.

Unlike their Japanese counterparts, however, Western ‘elites’ have no concept of kin, race, or nation. They will sell their people, American or European, in a heartbeat if that means a few more points for their portfolios.

That’s why this past election was the Ultimate Crossroads, a once-in-a-lifetime fork in the road. Thankfully, Trump survived the assassination attempt – by literally 2mm – and is onto the next stage of the mission.

Playing the hand right

The world is one giant poker table, and America still holds the best ‘hand’. The prior players were just retarded in the way they played it. Now, there’s a new player who understand that the United States:

• Is a massive territory, protected by two oceans

• Has 350 million people, including the most creative, entrepreneurial and innovative in the world

• Has the global reserve currency and is home to 90% of investible money

• Is the number #1 consumer in the world (by far)

While that last figure may seem a negative, under current circumstances it is leverage. Sellers need buyers and if everyone depends on US consumption, tariffs become an incredibly powerful stick. In one motion, Trump gives his own people an advantage in the market, and he puts a dent in the economy of his adversaries who will either stop selling in the US (either because they’re trying to find new markets or because Americans will turn to local goods), or the US will cash in on that trade.

The US is uniquely positioned to take the Japan route: to sacrifice short-term material gains in favor of true, spiritual wealth: empowering the new rise of the American spirit. And because of its size and status, it has the ability to weather the economic storm much better than Japan did.

At the end of the day, cultural and ethnic preservation is worth far more than economic growth. If you have to correct (or even crash) the economy to preserve ethnicity and culture, it’s a worthwhile trade. A large enough population with a high IQ, cultural cohesion and a penchant for productivity and innovation, will find a way to reconstruct a strong economy. In fact, it will probably be in much better shape: more local, decentralized and robust than the thin-supply-chain globalist version of a fake economy we have today.

It baffles me that Austrian economists and Libertarians fail to acknowledge either of these factors. Localism is healthier and more robust than Globalism, and principles like private property, natural law, hard work, saving and rational capital allocation are not found in the ether. Nor can we just assume that everyone operates on that framework – they just don’t. This kind of economic behavior is first and foremost cultural. If you hollow out your cultural and ethnic makeup for the sake of GDP, you’re killing that which in the first place made free market economics possible.

If you import the (incompatible) Third World, or send all your money there, you’re diluting both your wealth and your culture. If you keep doing this just because you want cheap goods and labor, at some point, when the music stops and the entire world is Africa or India, your free markets won’t mean a damn thing.

Preserving Western principles means preserving People, Culture, and Nation. That is not a material decision, but a much deeper, spiritual one. It’s about quality, not quantity.

War

The harsh reality that many – including Hoppean theoretical Libertarians – don’t want to confront, perhaps because it is unpleasant, is that life is a constant battle at every level.

Individuals compete, and so do Nations. From the cells in our body to the psychology of our mind, through to the arguments we have in cyberspace, and all the way up to nation-level struggles. We are all at war, and to ignore this means death. You must be prepared for war, whether it comes or not. It’s why I opened The Bushido of Bitcoin with my favorite quote:

“It’s better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war”

We are all dealt a hand, and we must all play it to the best of our ability, with the tools at our disposal and the luck that God grants us. Trump is playing a dangerous game and despite everything I’ve said here, neither I, nor anyone knows how this will pan out.

Either way, the current globalist order needs to be shaken up, and this will require a kind of charisma, character and fortitude that few people in the world possess. Trump has it.

It’s not going to be smooth sailing. There will be some ups and downs ahead of us. But I’m here for it. Right now, our most fundamental fight in the West is cultural and ethnic. It is about preserving the flame of civilization. This is not the time to cry about your stonks or free market principles being hurt.

I’m very thankful that there is an opportunity to fight for the soul of the West without going all-out kinetic, for as much as I write about the virtues of war I am not a war-monger or someone who wishes bloodshed. The people who call for that are the ones who will not bleed. Fuck those parasites.

Competition is good, and competition is forever – but at times, both on an individual and national level, it can turn really ugly and violent. Thankfully, this is not the present case. Far from it. We are just so desensitized from change, struggle and pain that the slightest disturbance seems like the end of the world, and a 20% correction on the stock market feels like Armageddon.

Don’t be the Virgin Tariffs Worrier…

It’s time to grow some balls, and trust the plan. Not Trump’s plan – but God’s plan. We all dodged the bullet for a reason. Let’s now stay the course.

Aleksandar Svetski

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I’ll be doing more of these short-form essays as I explore the core themes from The Bushido of Bitcoin and prepare to write the second book in the Bushido series: The Metaphysics of War & Beauty.

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