Trump does a two-step on secondary tariffs. 
Secondary Tariff Definition
A secondary tariff is a tariff on other nations for doing business with third countries. For example, Trump put secondary tariffs on China and India for doing business with Russia.
However, Trump is suddenly silent on the matter, mainly because secondary tariffs have backfired.
Trump’s ‘Secondary Tariff’ Two-Step
Bloomberg comments on Trump’s ‘Secondary Tariff’ Two-Step With India and China
US President Donald Trump is credited with inventing the strategy, essentially an adaptation of secondary sanctions — penalties that apply not to the target country but others that do business with it. Trump threatened to use this new weapon against buyers of Venezuelan oil, for example, without much follow-up (so far).
Here an obvious problem has surfaced. The US has dangled the threat of gigantic “secondary tariffs” against China and India because they buy lots of Russian oil. US Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, backed legislation that could tax their exports to America at a 500% rate. But at the same time, the Trump administration is engaged in delicate trade talks with both countries — and it’s already seen firsthand how punitive measures can backfire.
And when the US imposed “secondary” tariffs of 25% on India a few weeks ago over its oil purchases — arguably the administration’s only actual use of the instrument so far — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promptly made his first visit in years to China. He was seen there in friendly conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping as well as Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin. For the US, which has cultivated India for decades as a counterbalance to Chinese power, it was hardly the ideal outcome.
When it comes to major economies like China and India, the US — which is trying to radically revamp commercial ties with everyone all at once — has plenty of its own direct trade interests to protect.
With India, that includes market access for America’s farm exports and defense industries. With China, it’s everything from artificial intelligence to fentanyl interdiction. Introducing the Russia-Ukraine war into these talks risks throwing a spanner in already complex works.
India says recent trade negotiations have been “constructive,” but that Washington continues to insist that New Delhi stop buying Russian oil if it wants to get its US tariff rate down. India has been adamant that it won’t do so.
Ultimately it’s hard to see how the US can reach agreement with either country, and make it stick, without backing away from the “secondary tariff” threat. And Trump may have found cover to do just that. Much of the pressure to get tough on Russia’s trade partners has been coming from US allies, especially in Europe. Trump’s latest strategy is to tell them that the US is ready to mirror any punitive steps they’re willing to take themselves.
But whatever steps the Europeans are ready to take, they’ve made it fairly clear that “secondary tariffs” aren’t on the list. So Trump, by his own logic — and perhaps to his relief — may not have to impose them, either.
Two-Step or a TACO?
Is this a tariff two-step or a Trump Always Chickens Out (TACO).
One has to wonder what if any red lines Trump really has on Russia give that he has backed down on every threat.
The war in Ukraine was supposed to have ended day one.
Now Trump will no do any sanctions unless every NATO nation does them first.
Truth Social Letter to the World
A LETTER SENT BY PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP TO ALL NATO NATIONS AND, THE WORLD: “I am ready to do major Sanctions on Russia when all NATO Nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all NATO Nations STOP BUYING OIL FROM RUSSIA. As you know, NATO’S commitment to WIN has been far less than 100%, and the purchase of Russian Oil, by some, has been shocking! It greatly weakens your negotiating position, and bargaining power, over Russia. Anyway, I am ready to “go” when you are. Just say when? I believe that this, plus NATO, as a group, placing 50% to 100% TARIFFS ON CHINA, to be fully withdrawn after the WAR with Russia and Ukraine is ended, will also be of great help in ENDING this deadly, but RIDICULOUS, WAR. China has a strong control, and even grip, over Russia, and these powerful Tariffs will break that grip. This is not TRUMP’S WAR (it would never have started if I was President!), it is Biden’s and Zelenskyy’s WAR. I am only here to help stop it, and save thousands of Russian and Ukrainian lives (7,118 lives lost last week, alone. CRAZY!). If NATO does as I say, the WAR will end quickly, and all of those lives will be saved! If not, you are just wasting my time, and the time, energy, and money of the United States. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.”
Leaders Lead, Headless Chickens and Bluffers Don’t
Leaders lead by example. They don’t shout at the top of their lungs, you first.
His Truth Social Post is really just a TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out).
Trump has threatened Putin a dozen times this year and Putin spit in Trump’s face. Now Trump demands NATO to do what he has threatened.
There are 32 NATO countries and Trump wants all of them to act before he does.
None of them have any reason to believe Trump would hold up his end of the deal. Indeed, no country can possibly believe anything Trump says at all after he unilaterally scrapped his own USMCA deal.
Backing Down on China
Trump backed down on China when China responded to high tariffs by cutting off its supply of rare earth minerals.
Now that India has told the US to go to hell over its oil imports, Trump is suddenly silent on those secondary tariffs too.
Trump’s Bold Call to NATO for Unified Sanctions on Russia Is Really a TACO
On September 15, I commented Trump’s Bold Call to NATO for Unified Sanctions on Russia Is Really a TACO
You First!
That is Trump’s newest demand on Russia.
The gist of today’s Bloomberg commentary is Trump may apply the same logic to secondary tariffs on India.
But the damage has already been done. Trump drove India closer to both Russia and China via his nonsensical secondary tariffs.
Related Posts
June 5, 2025: Two-TACO Trump Day on His Call to Xi Over Rare Earth Elements
Trump is hyping up his call with China’s Xi. But chalk up 2 more TACOs.
August 4, 2025: China Again Chokes Off Critical Rare Earths Needed for Defense
Trump threatened China with tariffs for doing business with Russia. Guess what?
Trump has no cards in this battle. And it shows.
There are none. Trump has no leverage and he knows it.
He is just squirming every which way to shift the blame for losing.
Plan A of these geniuses was that Western GDP would finally once and for all overwhelm Nigeria with snow, the gas station posing as a country.
Now it has emerged that the snow n¡ggers are producing each quarter more materiel than all of NATO from Tallinn to San Diego can produce in a year, and they have not even turned to their backstop, China, which has 10× the industrial capacity of any other party. Worse, NATO/American Air Defense sucks, and the Russians are generations ahead with missile technology. The much vaunted military juggernaut even had to pull a TACO in the Red Sea against sandal-clad Houthi.
Tariffs are gov intervention. Gov connected industries benefit from them. Their workers can afford higher prices. Bank’s loan to favorite business people and dominant consumers enable them to increase consumption. Retirees, gov workers, health sector, edu, retailers…will suffer in a bipolar economy. Thus, certain areas will inflate. Other areas will deflate. Since those essential industries are not ready yet the US economy might deflate, before rising in 2026/2027 for decades.
This is the second time Mish is claiming this.
No idea what he is talking about.
Russians have been obsequious about playing to Trump’s ego and delusions.
Unlike the Russian populace, for whom “American general” has become a common term of derision.
=china = india = russia
well, if you take into account PPP calc,
china #1 economy,and india #3 economy in the world!!
next is Russia!
it is not Canada that 90% depends on USA.
just a guess!
alx
ps
Top Economies by GDP (PPP) in 2025
China: The world’s largest economy by GDP (PPP) in 2025, with estimates around $40.27 trillion
United States: Ranks as the second-largest economy, with an estimated GDP (PPP) around $30.51 trillion.
India: Consistently ranks as the third-largest economy by GDP (PPP) for 2025, with estimates around $21.875 trillion
Russia: Expected to be the largest economy in Europe and among the top globally, with an estimated GDP (PPP) of around $7.2T or $7.688 billion in 2025
Tariffs protect essential industries. Wages in those industries will rise. Workers in those industries can afford higher prices. Wages in unfavorite sectors might deflate, in real terms. They will have to cut consumption. Thus prices in some areas will rise, in other areas they will fall. Thus tariffs by themselves do not cause inflation without an increase of M-2.
More US tariffs? China’s ‘Furniture Kingdom’ says it’s already moved on
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/more-us-tariffs-chinas-furniture-103822489.html
“Well, I oughta punch you in the face” line with a sucker punch following from the threatened one. That is from TV shows when I was a kid.
I object to D.C. foreign policy not because of poor bargaining position or tactics but because it’s immoral. If it were moral but disadvantaged by circumstances, I would support it.
I presume Mish, a libertarian, feels the same. Probably most of you, too.
And the beat goes on in dc with few real surprises but clearly of press interest.
Trump needs Europe to commit to defending itself from Russian aggression, but it looks like much of Europe sees little threat. Europe has forgotten how much human life was lost after Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement failed. Poland though understands the threat since it was invaded and controlled by Russia as part of the Iron Curtain after WW2. The Polish people DO NOT want that to happen ever again. Until Europe understands the threat in front of them, Trump will continue to sound the alarm.
Neocons:
Russia is having trouble in Ukraine
also
Russia is going to invade Western Europe
Pick one. You can’t believe both.
It is kinda like the argument –
The German/ Poland war was a regional war. WWII started on May 10 1940 when Churchill, an aggressive media guy, became GB PM. Boris Johnson, the UK PM, started the Ukraine war.
=The German/ Poland war was a regional
for most of 1940 french=brits did not do anything !
IT WAS CALLED STRANGE WAR in europe.
LOL. Burger Boris was just the instrument. It was US that started the war in 2014. And used Boris as the means to thwart the Russia-Ukraine deal that was making good progress just one month into the war, in March 2022.
> Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement
This is one of the dumbest unchallenged memes in history.
Politicians lie all the time, presenting themselves as pro-peace to hide their schemes for conquest from a gullible public. NC, a PM of the most successful empire in history, was no fool. He said that for public consumption.
Western oligarchs, hungry for Russian resources and threatened by communism, financed the reindustrialization and rearmament of Germany for the purpose of inflicting damage on the USSR and, as a stretch goal, the French Empire — at one time a near peer.
Both succeeded. WW2 inflicted mortal demographic and economic wounds on both the USSR and the French Empire. Russia did most of the work of defeating Germany but paid such a high price that it’s misleading to say they “won” anything but their survival. (80% of the fighting and destruction happened in the East, allowing the West to turn to manufacturing consumer goods while the East was still clearing rubble.). Less spectacularly than the USSR dissolution, France began losing colonies immediately and continues to this day.
Trump needs Europe to commit to defending itself from Russian aggression, but it looks like much of Europe sees little threat. Europe has forgotten how much human life was lost after Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement failed. Poland though understands the threat since it was invaded and controlled by Russia as part of the Iron Curtain after WW2.
===
never KNEW HITLER WAS RUSSIAN!!
or Karl 12 was russian,
or napoleon was russian!!
======
or it was Russians who sailed down black sea and start shooting french/ brits. in middle of 19th century !!
OPPS . IT WAS BRITS / FRENCH who sailed Crimea and start killing Russians!
my fault.:)))
=======
was Poland INVADED BEFORE OR AFTER Poland INVADED Russia AT START OF 17TH CENTURY? and installed polack for couple years as Czar?
get back to school mo11ron.. mom is calling , time to sleep sunny boy!
alx
can you find on map Crimea and France or Great Britain?
most amusing thing for me is
most westerns are du11mb so they think it was only 20th century that existed..
no Brit/ Spanish empires last 500+ years, imperialism, opium wars, slave triangle , etc etc etc!
=====
i think, it just result of NOT reading hist .books and watching mass media aka propaganda!
that is all!!
was Poland INVADED BEFORE OR AFTER Poland itself ( = Rzeczpospolita )
INVADED Russian empire AT START OF 17TH CENTURY? and installed pollack for couple years as Czar?
get back to school mo11ron.. mom is calling , time to sleep sunny boy!
The developing world would rather deal with China and their relatively transparent transactionality than dealing with the now strange and repellant “morality clauses” of the US
Add in the Trump “knee on the neck” approach and it’s not a surprise we no longer can muster a “coalition of the willing”
Right, the world can rely on a benevolent China that has murdered over 50 million of its own citizens. Great country. They will never have a reserve currency, no one in their right mind can trust them. They are evil.
The Europeans and Yanks killed those “50m” people.
Your countries took over China, remember? Your countries took all their port cities (in a time before air transport), pumped it full of opium, and invaded it to maintain their puppet government. IIRC FDR’s family made money on it too. When the people of china tried again to overthrow their puppet government and throw the white conquerors out, the white conquerors continued arming their local groups to fight the rebellion.
Mao was the George Washington of China. Except their revolution happened post industrialization and war mechanisation (machine guns instead of muskets). In a densely populated country. Therefore the body count was much much higher.
If the Europeans and Yanks didn’t take over China, turn it into a shit hole, and then fight to hold onto their colonial possession, then none of those people would have died.
…
I doubt you blame for eternity George Washington or USA as a country for all the deaths during the USA revolution. But, to avoid a double standard, that’s what you’d have to do. If you do employ double standards, you should spend some days asking yourself why.
You can rationalize your communist love any way you want. Fact is the communists, between Russia and China, have murdered over 100 million of their own citizens. How you enjoy life with your idol Xi.
Typical left wing rationalization, prior acts don’t condone murder of ones own countrymen, Its like blaming the victim of a drunk driver for being in his way. Unbelievable.
Look in the mirror. Stop rationalising your rulers’ mass murder, lies, and thieving.
Don’t be a cuckservative. They lie and steal from you too. They smear other countries in order to trick you into sacrificing your or your kids’ blood to fight their wars to enrich themselves. Learn to see through their lies.
I do moron. You need a lobotomy to think straight. We don’t have any conservatives left. BTW conservatives don’t condone endless military interventions and nation building they are more isolationists. Our county has problems with corrupt crony capitalism but we still havent’ committed the atrocities that the communists have on their own people. Look it up. The single biggest cause of unnatural deaths in the 20th century was democide. More than all the wars combined. The majority of these were by communists. You are the cuck sycophant.
Ahh, the “true conservative” argument…
You two people are proving, with your separate but equal facts about both the west and east, that ALL “leaders” are scum!
Are deaths during a war of independence “murder”? Do you call out George Washington for mass murder?
Are deaths during a war of conquest “murder”? Do you call out your European and Yank governments for murdering Chinese trying to win back their independence?
Think about why you do or do not apply a uniform standard. Don’t dismiss my reasoning and questions with evasive memes.
…
I don’t see many comments on the internet condemning the European/Yank conquest of China or continual subjugation for 150 years via the rifle, setting China up for Japanese invasion and raping too. But, I often see the ludicrous “50!, nay 100! million murdered!”. You guys like to talk about one but not a peep about the other and certainly not about how any conflict involves two or more combatants rather than the depiction of China punching itself. Then suddenly you’re like “oh, but, sir, I have /standards/!”.
Bottom line you trust your dear leaders, you have no choice. Can’t fight back because you can’t arm yourselves. So go along now and put your faith in your murdering leaders. Good luck. BTW the one common denominator allowing democide was gun control. It does work. I’ll stick with a corrupt US still the best horse in the glue factory. At least we have the opportunity to make political change if people ever wake up.
That is part of the Grift!
I don’t know your particular case. But I’ve met and discussed China in person with a few Chayna-haters and discovered they do subconsciously use different standards: one for white people and one for everyone else. It’s really subconscious though. I believe they truly believe it when they claim not to be racist. … I actually feel badly for these NPC’s but gave up talking to them since I can never get anywhere helping people examine their own beliefs if they don’t want to.
Awesome. I was waiting for it… when libtard leftists don’t like the facts they scream racism. Typical. Find a safe space to suck your thumb.
“I don’t rationalize” — then you don’t accept “self-defense” as a pleasure, right?
Because if all you do is narrow your focus to one death without context, then “self-defense” isn’t valid.
You are correct. I am not racist. I had four Chinese Male Company Partners who stole money from my Company (“our” US Corporation) by taking a cut on every Single High Tech product in Taiwan, hidden from me until my new Irish CFO pointed it out to me. It was on PAPER. I quit and retired.
They feel that they understand the cost and benefit of dealing with China better than that of the US
Trump tariffs increases centrifugal forces in China. TACO will slow them down bc he doesn’t want to break China apart. Trump and Shi are good friends. Trump blames Bush, Obama and Biden for allowing China to become our #1 adversary. China and Iran suffer from both inflation and depression pressures. Centrifugal forced might break us apart bc we hate each other so much.
GDPNow pops to 3.9% as we close out September. Only a few more weeks until the initial reading. The subcomponents do show an uptick in Net Exports.
I think Trump’s Ukraine strategy is to wait for Russia to really do something stupid forcing the Europeans to get serious. Not sure what that will look like, but Trump certainly understands that America can’t get Putin to the table by ourselves.
I just don’t see how the EU has put the kind of skin in the game that’s needed to get Putin to at least a ceasefire. And maybe the EU really doesn’t want a ceasefire, because it would probably require NATO troops move into Ukraine to keep the peace.
We’ve already lost India. They’re part of BRICS. They want to overtake the US about as much as China does but just aren’t involved in all the psyops that China is against us.
I wrote it here back in February and can repeat it until it stick.
Putin doesn’t care for Trump any more than he cared for Bush, Obama or Biden. Might be even easier for Putin as he most likely has much more dirt on Trump than he had on Obama. But regardless this is super naive to think that Trump could prevent this war or magically solve it.
Putin and Russia negated USSR collapse and are on path to rebuild it. Nothing Trump can do, wait or not will not change this course. Might slow or speed up things a bit but objective is the same.
Let me repeat it here, Trump has ZERO cards to play Putin.
Russia is only afraid currently of China, definitely not USA. So due to this they will not try to reclaim Asian states, like Kazakhstan because it borders China.
But they will work on western flank.
If Trump want to make a difference he should pull any aid from Ukraine. If he not doing it he will just continue Biden strategy here.
What “dirt” do you think Russia could possibly have that’s worse than Epstein? Or that’s worse than many other things we know about trump?
The “dirt on trump” meme is so stupid. Our regime can hide anything it wants. All it took to bury the Epstein case was one fresh assassination. FFS, Epstein and Jimmy Savile and other scandalous behaviour goes on for decades, even with it being talked about in the background
It doesn’t matter what some foreign leader or foreign press says about a domestic leader. What matters is what the domestic press says. Since the 1996 telecom act, ever fewer people decide that. And those people are not Russian.
Agreed. It turned out that the hotel pee fest was a lie.
Lots of people hold to this notion that Russia has some damning evidence against Trump. If Putin doesn’t like Trump as much as Igor says, then it seems entirely reasonable that he would have leaked this information prior to the 2024 election. Why take a chance of letting Trump 2.0 happen, if you’ve got the goods to potentially stop it?
“scandal” rarely seems to end a career, unless it was only getting started like the (somewhat amusing) case of George Santos in NY.
Whatever! There are WAY more people that hate Trump than Santos, who by the way didn’t invade a country like Putin did.
I just don’t see Putin having dirt on Trump.
I agree it is just speculation that Putin has something on Trump. But Trump bullying every body except Putin, this tells you something.
No why to let Trump2 happen? Well this would be perfect explanation here. If Russia has some dirt on Trump then he is perfect president.
Regardless if it is indeed a case or not my opinion is clear.
Trump was never in a position to end this war. I know Mish and lots of folks had high expectation on him doing something but other then withdrawal from that conflict there is no chance Trump can archive any successhere.
Putin changed Russian economy to be a war economy.
There is too much interest now to continue war effort plus once war stops Russians might start asking questions. So only option now is to forge ahead until great victory.
If Ukraine fold then Russia will continue elsewhere, most likely Moldova.
So form that perspective prolonging war is in best interest of Europe, but again is it USA problem?
I think that I was pretty clear that Trump can’t alone or really wants to do anything. What part of that did you miss, Igor?
Again, I think Trump really wants Russia to take Ukraine or most of it at least to force the hands of the EU to get serious about their defense spending.
That’s a VERY plausible position.
But he can’t remove all assistance, because then it would telegraph to the world that he wants Russia to win the Ukrainian war.
A few months ago Pakistani J10 (Chinese) shot down 3 Indian Rafale fighters. During NATO exercise French Rafales shot down F-35 and F-15 in dogfights. Thus, J10 (Israeli Kfir) can shoot down F-35 and F-18 in a war over Taiwan.
“US President Donald Trump is credited with inventing the strategy”.
I guess Bloomberg failed to double-check Trump’s claims with AI:
AI Overview
“While the concept of using economic pressure against secondary parties is not new, Donald Trump is credited with inventing the term “secondary tariffs” during his presidency.”
Great work: rebranding with words and taking credit for a stupid concept.
All the sanctions on Iran are also secondary.
There are countless measures where the US has tried to exert extra-jurisdictional authority on other countries or even on the rest of the world — it does not accept any sovereignty but its own.
I find Trump’s behavior toward Putin to be very bizarre. He will bring down the hammer on almost anyone even if he later changes his mind, while with Putin, lots of threats but never an action. So what does Putin have on Trump?
That is interesting; he growls a little bit, and then backs off without any apparent cause. But Trump’s incoherence toward Putin is not dissimilar to his incoherence toward most anyone and everything. He seems very vague on what an ally or enemy actually is, or what a contract or treaty is. Or a strategy. Or a commitment. Pick ’em. He only seems consistent in paranoiacally attacking a growing list of domestic perceived enemies, i.e., those with no border and ambient national will to stand up to his moves.
Remember all those meetings in the first term with no transparency.
Nothing. I think Trump just really hates Z and is fine with Putin overtaking Ukraine which will force the EU to do more militarily to strengthen NATO.
Like seriously. What would the EU members of NATO be forced to do, if Russia actually takes over all of Ukraine?
Ukraine is the EU’s war, not ours. Until the EU get’s serious, Trump is fine with sitting on the sidelines. And it MAY actually be better for the EU / NATO for Ukraine to fall to Russia.
I know that’s not a popular stance, but it certainly provides a reasonable explanation of why Trump isn’t going full tilt on Russia.
It took the US two years to enter WW2 and that was the result of Japan attacking Pearl Harbor & not what was happening in Europe.
FDR was having US Navy ships attack German subs, but the Germans wouldn’t take the bait. FDR’s economic war on Japan (cutting them off from oil) provoked their attack. If FDR hadn’t manipulated the US into WWII, it would not have been a world war and at least half of the 90 million people killed would not have been. WWII was the war that made the world safe for Communism, the sine qua non of Mao killing 100 million Chinese.
> the sine qua non of Mao killing 100 million Chine
Jesus! Someone else just said “50 million” in this same thread. I guess it’s hard for numbers to match when they’re made up.
Go read my reply on this subject elsewhere in this thread.
That’s all fine & dandy, but it still took 2 years for the Japs to attack us, forcing us into the war. All I’m saying, is that similarly, the Russian are going to have to do something really stupid to get NATO involved. And when that happens, that’s ~33 countries, including the US, potentially going after Russian troops in Ukraine and potentially targets in Russia.
People act like NATO is impotent. That’s BS. Even without the US, the amount of air power NATO has over Ukraine is beyond enormous.
If this goes on long enough, Putin is going to do something stupid. Otherwise, he continues to make territorial gains that puts a similar level of pressure on the EU to actually do something much bigger than what they’re doing. I don’t know what that is, but at some point, the war stands at least a 50/50 chance of escalating to the point of significant EU or NATO involvement.
> Putin is going to do something stupid.
Putin demonstrates intelligence, wisdom, and morality far beyond NATO rulers. When something”stupid” happens, it’s either a false flag or something Putin had to do (like intervene in Ukraine) to protect Russia.
NATO has been lying about everything it’s involved in, since it’s existence.
“NATO has been lying about everything it’s involved in, since it’s existence.”
Please list example, dude!
NATO lied to Russia at Minsk. NATO has been lying [Mockingbird media] about most of the news of the war. The Russian drones over Poland smells like “Assad gassed his own people” false flag.
BenW, you seem mighty casual about war with a nuclear power, especially one in the opposite hemisphere from where we live that should be none of our business. Except that our corrupt ruling class loves war and fomented it in the 1st place.
Here comes the hammer:
troops have been authorized to use “full force”…
oh wait, that’s in Portland.
Trump has no cards. Russian oil is more important to India than trading with the U.S. Same with China whose exports increased while exports to the U.S. cratered.
It is even worse than that. The US has plenty of cards in the foreign policy game. However Trump has played terribly and been consistently called out on his bluffs.
He has played pathetically with the decent cards he has been dealt.
(Of course this naively assumes he has US interest at heart rather than simply wanting to line his own pockets.)
“Trump has played terribly.”
Compared to whom? Biden? ROTFLMAO!!!