He's just running a kleptocracy, and doing so reasonably well.

He's already got more money than he can spend. As dementia sets in, he's been shifting more and more to pure emotion-based decision making.

> “motivated entirely … to stuff his pockets”

Someone's pockets, must be gnomes:

• PHASE 1: COLLECT UNDERPANTS. (tariff "foreign" goods desired by Americans, collect upon import from companies, clarify spiked prices experienced by consumers ‘entirely’ due to prior admin policies)

• PHASE 2: … (let simmer)

• PHASE 3: PROFIT. ("return" tariff costs to companies)

don’t forget his weak ego

It's worse than that. He is so completely off that he thinks this means US builders will chose to buy US lumber instead and that will work out positively for everyone in the US.

The "make more money" rationale is way too logical vs how this guy's brain operates. It's better understood as being like Pro Wrestling. Except the "ring" is the world economy.

He wakes up and flips a coin. He doesn’t care anyway and there’s no consequences.

[flagged]

Indeed. Donald Trump is only the visible tip of an iceberg. Below the waterline it's a massive and all encompassing corruption, comprised of an organized multi-national cabal that touches every part of the globe and which has its roots in the world starting well before WWI. The goal of which appears has always been to enrich the people on the inside while sewing chaos. To these figures, war and peril have always been more profitable than making peace.

https://annas-archive.gl/md5/2275fbf2d96f518e54c2b72edf163f8...

Or they'll raise prices by that ten percent and become the marginal supplier. No way they're going to accept a loss. (Many items shipped into the USA of late have tariff related fees.)

In reality unfortunately it likely means mills will sit idle or shut down entirely. Prices might come down a little bit hopefully

Amen.

Given "Donald" reference is beyond obvious, same if you know anything about trade, geography or housing issues.

This comment seems exactly like the school room exercise where the teacher hands out a test with a paragraph of instructions that includes the text buried in it: "do not answer any questions below" and students rush through the test and fail because they didn't bother reading the entire comment before ripping off their own because "our" is ambiguous. There is plenty of context in the comment, even for non-North Americans, since its very unlikely "Donald" was referring to famed Canadian-actor Donald Sutherland.

Or would you prefer every comment on HN to begin with: "As a/an $CountryDemonym..." or other requisite bona fides?

His negotiating methods, if one can call them that, are like "single use weapons" that are relationship burning rather than building. If you are doing 100s of one-off deals with counterparties you will never talk to again, and who don't know each other.. it might actually work.

But you burn the ability to make more deals with the same counterparty again.

If you played this game with your neighbor over a fenceline or tree limb dangerously overhanging into your yard.. you would save a few bucks once, and have an antagonistic relationship for the next 10-20 years of living next to them. Good luck getting the benefit of the doubt next time.

Honestly though, it seems like he would rather have everyone lose than take a chance that anyone but him wins.

Even positive reporting of the man makes him out to have a massively fragile ego.

Right it probably works in real estate if you aren’t dealing with the same trading partners often. It is a business where dirtbag behavior is the norm.

May also explain why he stopped doing actual NYC RE dev and moved onto his licensing model in dozens of cities (new pools of suckers).

But when every threat & walk back is covered in national media, and he is playing the same game with the same big trading partners .. it loses its effect. Similarly he’s quite old and certainly lost any touch he had.

True but it won’t stop price gouging or as the company uses have been calling it price blending.

This does not seem to be accurate, from the reporting I've read. Do you have a source?

I read the article, I don't take away from it that Canadian lumber is suddenly 50% more expensive. It explains that tariffs for some Canadian lumber products was set to 50 percent at some point (or maybe lowered again, and raised, it's hard to tell since the Trump administration has issued 50+ different tariff directives in the last year), and that Canada walked away from negotiations recently.

I tried to do some more research before my coffee finishes in 5 minutes, you're right it's not ALL Canadian products or even all Canadian lumber products.

> Canadian negotiators also hoped to achieve some relief on softwood lumber tariffs that go back decades and were augmented with additional tariffs from Mr. Trump.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/21/world/canada/trump-tariff...

Not sure if you're joking, but I remember noticing the same thing last time I spent time there (2017). Lumber yards tend to have a lot of lumber. It's kind of like when you drive by a feed lot and they have an implausible number of cows (the ones over in imperial valley amazed me). Also there's always tankers by my house in Manhattan Beach. These anecdotes are not economic indicators.

The gas truck just came to the gas station on the corner and it's just crazy how big those things are, there's such a surplus of gas right now.

Idk about Washington but Oregon has increased logging a large amount over the last few years.

Yes, everyone know a modern economy statistics work by what you can see with your naked eyes out there on the streets.