So, I do meet and know Trump supporters. I basically ask them questions when I run into them to see where they are at. I am happy to say, some actually are horrified by Trump's first hundred days and what he has done to the economy. I did mostly think that destroying the economy, costing everybody money, crashing the markets and the dollar, wiping out people's retirement funds, causing inflation, a recession, and prices to rise and products to become harder to get, would cause the revolt against Trump we've been waiting and waiting for. I talk to a lot of business people, and they know in most cases how bad it is getting and is going get before many others. 

So, we're through the first quarter of the year and so, I ask them, has this tariff stuff had an impact on you? The answers tend to be "Oh yes it has." and the thing is, we really are not into the impact yet...we are going to see it hit like a wave. Still, I speak to this guy, Trump voter, he works for a company that I was not sure if they would feel anything from the tariffs because of the type of business they run. I asked how things were going when I saw him recently. To my surprise, he told me they did get many of their supplies from Canada, so their costs had gone up with the prediction they are going to continue to sharply rise. They were unprepared for this and it took them by surprise. He told me that the company always hits 5 million or more in the first quarter, but this first quarter was a disaster. They had barely reached 2.5 million. I was shocked and I said "You dropped 50% of your revenue?" and he said "Yes, and it is looking like the next quarter will be worse." 

So, I asked how they were handling that and he said, in quarter 1, they also laid off about a third of their workforce. My response was "That's terrible." but he, being the optimistic Trump voter, said "Well, we can function running leaner." and I said "But down 50% and laying off 30% of your workers sounds like a disaster to me." 

And then this is where his responses became mind-blowing. He said all the growth they saw when Biden was president was a mirage, false growth. Those profits and gains were an illusion. Being forced to run leaner would eventually lead to bigger profits. Sometimes you have to contract to expand. Their company had record setting profits when Biden was president but that had to be thrown out as an outlier. In reality they should have had losses when Biden was president, he said, so these losses under Trump were really Biden losses that were coming now and the real profits would eventually come under Trump. 

Honestly, I looked at him like he had lost his mind. I said "But you know the economy was humming, the envy of the world under Biden, and Trump crashed markets and drove up prices, created uncertainty and cost us all money, with this tariff stupidity. It's a self-inflicted wound. Your profits boomed under Biden."

He looked at me and said "You don't like the tariffs?"

I said "Of course not, I have eyes, I can see what it is doing. You guys are down 50%, laying off employees, and looking like that is going to continue to get worse, are you saying you don't see that? You are the second company I spoke to today doing layoffs and losing money on tariffs. I want the tariffs to end."

He said "But the tariffs are making us rich. We're bringing in so much money from them they will never end."

I could not help but to laugh and said "You are down 50% and laying off employees and you are saying we are getting rich?"

He said "Well, yes, between the tariffs and DOGE, we are getting richer as a country so he'll never end the tariffs. We should not end them."

I said "You need to focus, man. Your own numbers don't say that. Plus, the losses already from the tariff debacle are in the trillions. And DOGE has saved us nothing. In fact, with all of this tariff garbage and DOGE, Trump's administration has already spent more than Biden did in his first quarter by over 200 billion. So, we've saved nothing, we've made no gains, we are digging a hole deeper and deeper and driving up the debt. DOGE cost us more money rather than saving us anything and the tariffs are like having a money bonfire. We are not making money from this. Look at your own company, down 50% in Q1." 

He stared at me. He looked lost. But then insisted again that things would get better that we had to do this contraction to get to the expansion. 

This is where I truly wonder how a Trump supporter thinks. Had Biden said, I need to crash the economy, drive up prices with tariffs, cost the world trillions of dollars, cause rising inflation, the stock market to crash, the value of the dollar to fall, cause layoffs and lost profits, and then tell people that paying more for things was patriotic, that yes, this Christmas presents will cost more and shelves will be bare so just kids will need to settle for two presents instead of 30...well...MAGA nuts would have crucified him for that. Trump says this garbage though and they just say "OK, we will suffer for you master!" 

How do you gauge what the hell people are thinking?