In this episode, Scott Becker dives into two major topics: the surprising global shift in response to Trump’s tariff policies, and Tesla’s remarkable rebound despite sharp declines in international sales.
Chapter 1: What are the key topics discussed in this episode?
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. Today's discussion is President Trump, Tesla, tariffs, and more. So here's what's going on in the world, and it's fascinating to watch the world of Trump and how it spins, and God bless him. But here's what we're going to talk about today. We'll talk about two really distinct things. First is tariffs.
Chapter 2: How have Trump's tariffs affected international trade?
When President Trump first came up with the tariff concepts and started to put these trade barriers on other countries, the tariffs and so forth, Many people thought he was nuts and that it was a crazy initiative, even though many people understand that we've been getting crushed in international trade for a long time.
Chapter 3: What was the initial reaction to Trump's tariff policies?
I mean, as usual, so many people took so many shots at the guy, you would think that he was a complete moron.
Chapter 4: How have countries reacted to Trump's tariffs?
Fascinatingly enough, six to eight weeks later, we're at a spot where the headline today in one of the major business newspapers that's not that usually friendly to President Trump was that India and several other countries are doing everything they can to cut trade deals with the United States and get back in the president's good graces and to do a better job under consumer fairness or their tier of fairness with the United States.
Chapter 5: What are the implications of Trump's tariff policies on the U.S. economy?
I think it's actually amazing how this guy is willing to sort of break some eggs to get things done. And again, I was sort of very concerned about the tariff move, the quote unquote liberation date. Obviously, the stats that talked about tariff policy seemed ridiculous. Clearly, they talked about the actual tariff scores. But the fact is.
Chapter 6: How is Tesla performing in light of international sales declines?
Many countries were imposing tariffs on us in an unfair way, and it was causing trouble here. It had made us a huge deficit nation, a huge consumer nation, and we're always going to be that, but maybe not as fair as we were. So as this has played through, I almost have to give the guy some credit for what's going on with this tier of trade thing.
It's remarkable to see the US actually being able to cut some better trade deals and stabilize some of these trade situations. Literally fascinating. The second thing we'll talk about today is Elon Musk and Tesla and Doge. So here's my perspective. On Doge, the jury is very much still out on whether this is going to have any real impact in the long run.
I mean, the thing that's clear is they did uncover a ton of waste in government, no question about it, but they can't really touch Social Security and Medicare, which are huge parts of spending. Ultimately, also, to make the federal budget work, we've got to bring down the deficit because we're spending so much money in interest every year.
So I don't know whether at the end of the day, Doge will be window dressing or whether there'll be some real longer benefits that come out of it. Obviously, it did shine a light on a lot of spending that has been done by the U.S. That was a surprise to many of us. In terms of Musk, Doge, and Tesla, the other thing I'll note is that Tesla's back to down 10% year-to-date.
This is something where they're down 40% earlier this year or more. Their car sales have basically been cut in half in Europe and largely in China, too. They're getting crushed. But it's simply amazing the recovery they're having. And a lot of it's based on the concept that Tesla has so much of these autonomous self-driving tools and technologies and so forth that it becomes so popular.
And also that Elon is going to put more attention back into Tesla. I mean, you could love or hate Elon Musk, but what a force of nature this person is. If any of us had a fraction of the energy that he has, it would be a fascinating world. Maybe not a better world, but it would be a fascinating world. Just a fascinating thing to watch.
In any event, thank you for listening to the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. Thank you very, very much.
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