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GOP megadonor rages at Trump’s ‘bulls**t’ tariffs (www.thedailybeast.com)

submitted 1 week ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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Summary

Home Depot co-founder and GOP megadonor Ken Langone blasted Trump’s sweeping tariffs as “bulls--t,” calling the 10% across-the-board rate and country-specific hikes—like 34% on China and 46% on Vietnam—“too aggressive” and poorly calculated.

Langone criticized the administration’s formula, based on trade deficits, as nonsensical.

Other prominent figures, including economists and billionaires like Stanley Druckenmiller, Bill Ackman, and Elon Musk, have also spoken out.

Critics warn the tariffs hinder negotiation and lack sound economic grounding. Langone said Trump is being “poorly advised” on trade policy.

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[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 117 points 1 week ago

These kinds of people could lose 90% of their wealth and nothing material would change in their lives (ok maybe after they drop down to mere 100 millionaire status they'd have to sell the mega yacht). It's hilarious to see people like this getting upset because "number went down", when they could just choose to not be upset about it-- they're literally too broken in their brains to be happy.

[-] oxysis@lemm.ee 21 points 1 week ago

But they need their 16th new mega yacht this week!!!

[-] angrystego@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

I don't think it's just about possessions for them, it's about power, influence. If he get's slightly poorer, he may no more be able to buy politicians and make them do what he wants.

[-] gonzo-rand19@moist.catsweat.com 3 points 1 week ago

You can buy a US congressperson for as little as $10-15k depending on the state, so that really can't be it. Check OpenSecrets for confirmation.

[-] Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 week ago

That's the goal. Burn down the forest and scoop all the assets of the businesses that died.

[-] barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 6 points 1 week ago

They have mental illness - OCD and Hoarding.

If I collected old newspapers, or cats, or old vehicles, etc., far beyond what anyone would consider normal, I'd be called a hoarder, and people around me would try to get me medical attention.

But when these people do the same thing with money, they are practically worshipped, and they are encouraged to hoard more, and use their money to change the laws to get them even more money to hoard. Imagine someone who is hoarding hundreds of cats, and actively breeding more of them. NOBODY would encourage it, they would take the cats away, and find them new homes, and get psychatric treatment for the hoarder.

We need to treat billionaires like the financial hoarders that they are. Take away their hoard, and discourage hoarding behavior in the future, for the same reasons that we would remove the cats - because it's bad for society.

[-] AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@sh.itjust.works 70 points 1 week ago

Leopards or something, I think.

[-] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 29 points 1 week ago

I’ve never tried billionaire face, but if it’s good enough for the leopards…

[-] Eddbopkins@lemmy.world 69 points 1 week ago

So he got conned by a con man. You know what you called people who got conned? Suckers and losers.

[-] seeigel@feddit.org 2 points 1 week ago

Most people get conned. Some cons are just more obvious than others.

[-] Bellingdog@lemmy.world 61 points 1 week ago

Sit back, and watch your shit get wrecked by the man you thought you'd purchased.

That's the power of the Home Depot.

[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 53 points 1 week ago

"These tariffs are affecting me, there for they are bad and wrong! He should have calculated them in such a way that didnt affect me, personally!"

[-] UntouchedWagons@lemmy.ca 46 points 1 week ago

You (Ken Langone) made a bad investment -> Take the L

[-] Hadriscus@lemm.ee 4 points 1 week ago

Exactly

[-] mjhelto@lemm.ee 2 points 1 week ago

But they never do, nor will they ever have to. They can just sue the company for poor stock performance and then claim the unrealized losses as a tax write-off this year. It's infuriating. If aliens are real, I hope they can summon the billionaires money in physical form and then drop it on them.

[-] Aliktren@lemmy.world 44 points 1 week ago

You funded him, get over it

[-] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 35 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Yeah, founder of home Depot can go fuck himself.

Also don't shop at home Depot, he might be gone but the company still donated heavily Republican compared to most other hardware stores outside of Menards.

[-] xyzzy@lemm.ee 18 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I hate that I can't avoid them entirely in my area except for nuts-and-bolts type things, which I go to my local hardware store for. Home Depot and Lowe's have a monopoly in my area when it comes to most goods, but I had to give up on Lowe's entirely due to the truly terrible customer experience.

(Home Depot has a bad customer experience too, but my local Lowe's is on a different level.)

[-] grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 1 week ago

My local Lowes turned me off by having their music blaring way, way too loud for some event. Like, needed earplugs on that half of the store loud.

Now Home Depot has turned me off by not having any human-run checkout counters anymore, and all the self checkouts have incredibly distracting "we're recording you" screens. Plus, you know, the politics.

The Ace hardware is still awesome and has a store dog (no outside dogs allowed). Store dog is a friendly, happy lab.

[-] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago

What really annoys me is that my local Home Depot no longer has nuts and bolts in open bins. Often I need some bolts and nuts to connect one thing to another. Sure you can measure, but that introduces room for error. It's so much better to just take the part you need bits and bobs for to an aisle full of nuts and bolts. Then you can just directly check to see what fits. No need to measure. Just see if the bolt fits in the hole. Zero chance for error. There's nothing worse than making a drive to a store, getting the thing you need, just to get back home and realize you bought the wrong thing.

They still have nuts and bolts, but they're sealed in shitty little plastic bags of a handful of items each. I can't just open a small drawer full of washers, faff about until I find what I need, and then purchase the exact quantity for a given project.

Sure, I get that it's a theft risk. But come on. We're talking about nuts and bolts here. It's not like those have a huge resale value on the black market. Maybe it's a labor thing, having to keep the bins sorted. But if a hardware store can't even maintain a good accessible selection of basic mechanical fasteners, what are we even doing anymore?

This is the kind of thing any big hardware store should offer, even if they have to offer it as a loss leader to get people in the door. There have been many trips that I could have gone to Home Depot, for nuts and bolts and some other items. I might spend $50-100 total. However, I make my decision on what store to go to based on a few dollars worth of fasteners. By trying to prevent theft and loss for a few pennies worth of fasteners, Home Depot loses out on hundreds of dollars of my purchases.

[-] xyzzy@lemm.ee 2 points 1 week ago

It's not concern about theft, it's just penny-ante nickel-and-dime BS to get you to buy more than you need. But as you said, it's so hostile to customers that you wind up going somewhere else for bigger ticket items. Of course the opportunity cost is invisible to them.

[-] Quadhammer@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I agree wholeheartedly but my local one at least has the male and female gauge out that will let you physically thread something onto

[-] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Yeah, I simply choose bad customer service over more money donated to Republicans.

Thankfully around me there's an Ace hardware that is locally owned by people who aren't publicly political so that's my go to.

[-] xyzzy@lemm.ee 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It's great that you have that option. Really makes it easy for you

[-] barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 25 points 1 week ago

Unlike HitlerPig, this Sociopathic Oligarch is a smart businessman, and he knows that much of his inventory's cost is about to double.

Now he has a Sophie's Choice - double his retail prices and watch his sales crater, or reduce his profits, OR, the more likely choice, try to walk a tightrope between them, raising costs as much as he can without losing too much business, and absorbing the rest by a reduction in profits.

Any of those choices are going to have a negative impact on the stock price, and he will be deemed responsible, even though none of it is his fault, and all of it is directly attributable to HitlerPig's virtuosic dumbassery.

[-] MJKee9@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago

It's definitely partially his fault. He just thought he wouldn't be the one getting hurt.

[-] Allonzee@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Trump is the result of what the capitalists have done to the population since Reagan.

If you're a billionaire who profited off gutting taxes, the commons, schools, etc while propping up for profit media pushing pro business lies like climate change is a hoax to line your own pockets, this is your fault.

As much bloody murder as Kenny here is crying, he isn't suffering a tiny fraction enough. He should be in a secured mental health facility to treat his antisocial hoarding disorder for both his and our safety.

[-] barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 2 points 1 week ago

I often talk about these Sociopathic Oligarchs as mentally ill hoarders. If anybody collected cats like these guys collect money, they'd lock them up, but somehow these deranged people get worshipped for hoarding money they will never, ever need, even at the expense if destroying the entire country.

[-] Ledericas@lemm.ee 1 points 1 week ago

if he was smart, he shouldnt have donated to a known con-man.

[-] Sir_Premiumhengst@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago

Uh, don't make me tap the sign...

[-] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago

You got what you voted for dipshit. Zero sympathy.

[-] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 18 points 1 week ago

Every republican megadonor should be shot.

[-] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 week ago

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Fascists happily use corporate influence to gain power. But once they've achieved power, the corporations end up completely subjugated to the state just like everyone else. In Hitler's Germany, if you ran any kind of major company, the state told you what you were going to produce, when you were going to produce it, and how much you would be paid for it. Any executive who objected found themselves joining the other undesirables.

[-] Allonzee@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

"Why the fuck are you stupid leopards eating my face?!I bribed good money to have them eat the poories while I laughed!"

[-] SinningStromgald@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

Sorry no take backsies. You bought an idiot, deal with it like the rest of us you schmuck.

[-] futatorius@lemm.ee 13 points 1 week ago

That's what you get when you let the rich interfere in politics.

[-] j0ester@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

Isn’t this the same guy that wants to charge for parking in Home Depot if you don’t buy something in their store?

[-] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

This is standard practice in most supermarkets and even shopping centres that are located in higher density city centers in Europe, because otherwise nobody would be able to find a spot to park...

[-] chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 week ago

I get that, but I've gone to Home Depot to buy something expensive(in room ac), listed on their site as available, only to find none when I got there. I wouldn't want to pay parking for what amounts to false advertising.

[-] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Oh I've had this happen, and the staff were attentive and asked me if I needed them to validate my parking.

It really depends where this is coming from, if its a global policy for all stores even if they don't need it, it's a dick move. If they apply it to only the stores where parking is a big issue, I can understand.

[-] boolean_sledgehammer@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

Every goddamn conservative parasite in this country needs to carry the stain of Trump until the day they die. Any time any one of these blubbering fucks tries to speak they need to be reminded of what their diseased worldview got us.

Don't argue with them, don't attempt to reason with them, just remind them how badly they absolutely fucked everything from here on out.

[-] Microplasticbrain@lemm.ee 9 points 1 week ago

Hahahhahahahahhahagahha

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

FA, FO.

[-] SpiceDealer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 week ago

Ken Langone blasted Trump’s sweeping tariffs as “bulls–t,” calling the 10% across-the-board rate and country-specific hikes—like 34% on China and 46% on Vietnam—“too aggressive” and poorly calculated.

Well, you should've thought about that before you donated money to him.

Megadonor? More like Mega-simp.

[-] madjo@feddit.nl 5 points 1 week ago

Womp womp

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 5 points 1 week ago

Hmm

So you're telling me if a Home Depot burns down rn they'll blame Trumpers?

[-] meeeeetch@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

...those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Ooh, someone’s mad because they weren’t on the insider trading group chat.

[-] TipRing@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Trumps entire economic "plan" was to levy massive sweeping tariffs. He wouldnt shut up about it during the campaign, Harris kept warning that he was really going to do it, Trump kept insisting he was going to do it when surrogates attempted to soften his stance and now he is actually doing it. How stupid do you have to be to think he wasnt going to do the key part of his agenda?

[-] prole 1 points 1 week ago

Someone missed the memo and didn't buy the dip.

this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2025

433 points (100.0% liked)

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