There is an embedded assumption in the question that he does profit in some way from it, but based on his past behavior it’s a pretty safe guess.
Most of the reporting I have seen on this talks about the impact of the different tariffs, but not the “why” behind it (beyond parroting what Trump says, which is never true). I’m particularly interested in the tariffs on Canadian goods and energy. The justification about stopping fentanyl smuggling is an obvious lie. (It isn’t a real problem, and tariffs have nothing to do with drug smuggling. All but the mentally handicapped can figure that out for themselves.)
Edit: Thanks for the ideas. Causing shocks to the stock market and profiting from them sounds plausible. Using tariffs directly to extort business interests sounds even more likely.
BTW, I noticed that one of the commenters somehow changed their username after posting from “ComradeShark” (or something like that) to “Sharkfucker420” after I called him “Comrade” in my reply. I suspect that Russian influence farms didn’t shut down after the election. They’re still sowing discord on even niche social media platforms like Lemmy. (Also, rookie mistake on the username, brosky.)
About the second part regarding global warming. Trump doesn’t believe in that, so it unlikely he has plans towards that scenario.
I am almost certain he believes in it or atleast the many other capitalists he is beholden to do. They pretend it does not exist because it poses an existential threat that is unsolvable through capitalism. They cannot admit to the workers that it is real because fixing it would require deconstructing the system that empowers them.
Capitalism is the wrong word choice. It is unsolvable through oligarchy that prefers to protect their assets and buy Government fairly cheaply to achieve the goals. Markets and overall ROI from lower insurance costs, cheaper energy, and rational avoidance of future cleanup costs does not contradict rational market theory that is the core of what capitalism was defined as. Modern definition of all isms is simply that Capitalism is supremacy of capital. Protection of previous capital investments is not supposed to mean capitalism.
I meant what I said. Capitalism is a mode of production that is relient on the endless expansion of profit. The company must increase its profits every year in order to deliver them to its shareholders. This endless expansion of profit entails an endless expansion of production which also means increased energy usage. There was hope for the “green growth” strategy but realistically speaking that solution is impermanent. In order to decrease our consumption we must also decrease our production but this is not possible under capitalism.
Oligarchy is just capitalism expressing the control of profit over governance in a more naked way. The superstructure of government is beholden to the material base of capitalism, not the other way around unfortunately.