If Jan 6th didn't dissuade people, I don't think anything will.

Additionally, his base will not blame him, they will swallow whichever of the many narratives the propagandists are currently cooking up that suites their fancy.

US does produce olive oil, particularly in states like California, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Oregon, and Hawaii. So you do have a few options:

  1. Support local producers. There are high-quality olive oils made right here in the US that might surprise you.
  2. Work with Tunisia manufacturers to move their production to the US
  3. If you don't want to support local producers, pay extra and enjoy your Tunisia olive oil as much as you want
  4. If politics is the real issue for you, move to Tunisia, there is no "orange man" there

> There are no out of work olive farmers in the US.

Is that because we can't grow olives here, or because we don't have federal subsidies propping up a domestic olive industry that can compete with corn and soy?

I ready don't know the details well enough there, but it feels like this could just be selection bias at play.

You are right about olive oil. So why did he do it? The trade imbalance with Tunisia. Why is there are trade imbalance with Tunisia? US consumers have money to buy products from Tunisia, Tunisian consumers don't have the ability to afford products from the US. Why can't Tunisian's afford US products? This is the central question for every country in the trade war and it has myriad factors, but two of the biggest are: A higher cost US dollar, suppression of wages in countries like Tunisia (and Germany, and China, etc).

Maybe we can make British olive oil by getting Tunisian olive oil and putting it in a British bottle? Then it's only 10%.

The whole thing is kind of nuts.

California produces very high quality olive oil. I buy it at Costco. The Kirkland brand likely comes from outside the country.

Why do you think it's a good idea to buy olive oil from Tunisia instead of from California? Are you aware of how much CO2 is released to ship a trivial commodity across the atlantic ocean?

Tunisian here. Tunisians on social media are baffled/amused because olive oil is basically the only product imported by the US.

>> There are no out of work olive farmers in the US.

I'm not sure this is true. I buy olive oil specifically from California. It's niche but could be larger if they weren't competing with lower overseas labor costs.

According to Trump Tunisia has to buy olive oil from you for the same amount of money that you spent on Tunisias olive oil. Otherwise one side has a trade deficit and that's unfair!

The US has a trade surplus with the UK, and the UK got a 10% tariff :-) Who's ripping off who?

So, we can and do grow olives here in California, but it is a very small industry compared Spain, Italy, etc.

However, one thing we absolutely cannot grow here in any sort of money-making way, is coffee. So 32% tariffs on imports of coffee from Indonesia.... when we do not even export coffee.

We get a lot of titanium from China. That's because the largest natural Ti deposits are in Eurasia. That is due to geology, not politics, and now US companies who need it (read: high performance transport, medical products) will pay substantially more for it.

There are small olive oil producers in the US. Do they see this as a good thing?

Olive oil, coffee, chocolate, vanilla, tea, lots of fruits, sugar. These will all be massively stressed.

I think you started to form a persuasive argument, but you discredit yourself by saying "orange man".

> what strikes me as particularly insane is how it’s not even defensible as a protective measure

You must not have read many of the comments here. Way too many people are trying to defend this just because they don't want to have to admit that they were wrong on Trump being better for the economy.

I would happily pay 38% extra for high quality Tunisian olive oil, it is already super undervalued because it's reputation is lower than it should be.

It's gotten so bad that Tunisian olives are shipped to Italy, pressed into oil, and labelled as Italian Olive oil.

> There are no out of work olive farmers in the US.

You should be using America corn oil. /s

No offense, but the benefits may outweigh problems like getting your favorite Tunisian olive oil.

The orange man is saying: "Looks like you are sending a lot of $$$ to those olive oil farmers in Tunisia. With my tariffs you now have two choices at your disposal: either you keep buying their Olive oil but then you are going to have to give me $$$ as well to pay for our national debt. You are going to buy less of it; and help your country in the process. Alternatively, you can decide that maybe you don't need olive oil all that much. We have this amazing product called 'corn oil' which is produced locally and is now comparatively less expensive, buy that instead and support your local farmer. Choice is yours".

Maybe you don't like either of these choices; but at the same time; saying "I believe that having cheap access to product produced halfway across the globe is a god given right to American people; how dare you imposing me to make such a choice" is part of the reason why we need 13 earth to sustain the modern US lifestyle.

I am really not a Trump supporter at all. But at the same time the gradual reduction of tariffs has been a key factor of increasing global trade; which in turn is a key component of the increase of CO2 emissions. Finding a way to dampen a bit the international component and making sure that locally sourced products and services are not affected seems not that bad.

IMHO the idea is that they are ready to accept the suffering of Tunisian oil lovers for the greater good, which is the empowerment of certain type of people like them.

It's basically Europe but hundred or more years ago.

> My favorite everyday olive oil comes from Tunisia. They now have a 38% tariff on them.

"Silver lining:" there's a good chance that oil was either rancid or doesn't pass basic quality tests for the "extra-virgin" part:

https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/imported-olive-oil-quality-unre...

The COOC web site lists California olive oils that they've certified. Last time I checked California Gold Olive Oil was certified, and they even sell it in half and full gallons. That's just one I've tried and liked-- there are a bunch of others listed on the COOC web site. (Edit: there are probably certification trade associations for other countries/regions, COOC is just the one I'm familiar with.)