I mean, no. There's a possibility of winning at a casino no matter how small. You can't win in USA because even if you bet on a factory, ICE is gonna come and rape your employees. So, no. Your odds are much much better in a casino. Hell, with what Trump is doing I'd say he makes a casino look like investing.

There are three primary factors at play here.

1. Trump’s greed and need to line his own pockets. He will wreck entire economic sectors to add another billion (in bribe money) to his accounts.

2. Rich benefactors wanting more. They stay rich regardless of what the economy does, and have a ton of liquid. If it crashes, they can buy so much more of it up for themselves.

3. Foreign actors looking to upset US hegemony. They don’t have to go to war, they don’t have to fight economic battles…just incentivize the right people to do the wrong things at home in the US, and we destroy ourselves. It’s cheap and easy for them.

1. Foreign powers are manipulating trump to weaken US for their own agendas
2. its only about Trump being avaricious and gaining more power. Like going into nice neighbors house and stealing all the gold fixtures and copper wiring. Plus pilfering any funds connected to the house. There isnt any long term planning here. He still has his own place an can bail to anywhere in the world
3. Using said power to manipulate/bully others into paying trump for favors engorging himself more

Take your pick

The rich can afford to take an economic hit and are willing to do so for more power and control.

No, and the effects have not been as noticeable as they should be because too many cowardly CEOs are too afraid of being the first to enrage the Orange Turd by passing on costs to the consumer... but that won't last too long either

Only thing I can think of is if you liquidate funds or suppress them being impacted while taking bribes like that alleged $2 billion in crypto they got, they ride out everything dropping in price living the high life still, then buy up as much as they can on their way out so they own large portions of companies as they get built back up by the next generation. The laborers and will still exists, and they can build it back with these people owning more and having more say in what happens.

Otherwise... Just power. If no one can say shit about you doing anything you want whenever you want and you can treat everyone else like shit... Some people enjoy it greatly I guess.

You already have a lot of responses, but so far none have included: Trump and some of his top staff are just not that smart. He destroys soft power projection not because he has some thought-out theory about its value, but because he can't follow the effect chain through far enough to understand the benefits. He really believed Ukraine and Russia were continuing to fight because they hadn't talked to a skilled negotiator like him: the underlying geopolitics is completely beyond his grasp. He seems to genuinely believe that the spending cuts to Medicaid in his Big Bill will not make millions lose their health insurance.

There are grifters all through the administration and its outside support with the corrupt motives described by other commenters, and Trump himself is greedy and selfish, but I believe he genuinely lacks the intelligence to understand what he is destroying along the way.

is there any evidence at all of some gains?

Wall street seems to be doing okay. Slower growth, but line keeps going up

It's just teams at this point. Trump is just the quarterback that they're bitching about this season, they're not switching teams over it.

We have clients all over, and the tariffs have been a point of concern for many of them. It's gonna hit businesses hard, especially for shit that is only manufactured overseas.

That article is sobering. Bolding is mine.

...analytics company Tourism Economics... updated outlook now estimates an 8.2% decline, led by about one quarter fewer Canadians visiting the US from January to July, compared to the same period in 2024.

The World Travel and Tourism Council, a global tourism advocacy organization, projected in May that the United States will lose $12.5 billion in international visitor spending in 2025, the only country out of 184 economies the council analyzed that will see a decline this year.

as a european i can confirm almost everyone from all political spectrums says itms stupid to travel to the us atm

Don't blame American losers on Russians. Russians didn't vote for Trump, Americans did.

Americans are why America can’t have nice things.

It’s not like he stole the presidency. He got elected.

Gestures at 50+ years of imperialist, racist and anti-worker politics.

And by America first. They want to fall first and fastest.

Oh, he is very good for his own economy.