re: If this was about tariffs, why was Switzerland targeted?

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Then the stated reciprocity is a bold faced lie

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Any rational person can understand why we had to make sure and close all possible loopholes for this to work.

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But my point remains

This isn't about reciprocity or tariffs

Those were lies

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It still is reciprocity, just with closed possible loopholes.

Also, you forget that Trump 1 labeled Switzerland a currency manipulator and the tariffs are also about ending currency manipulation.

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The U.S. Treasury labeled Switzerland a currency manipulator in December 2020, arguing that the Swiss National Bank (SNB) was intervening in currency markets to keep the Swiss franc weak against the U.S. dollar. A weaker franc makes Swiss exports cheaper, benefiting their economy but potentially harming U.S. trade interests.

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Any rational person can understand why we had to make sure and close all possible loopholes for this to work.

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Then they should say it that way.

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There theoretically can be a relation

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It’s not “theoretical”

I’ll take your response as a reluctant “yes” because of course you can’t give a straight answer

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It still is reciprocity, just with closed possible loopholes.

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Then it's not reciprocity. Reciprocity requires the existence of something to respond to. Shifting to "loopholes" for those countries without something to respond to means a shift in rhetoric.

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Trump 1 labeled Switzerland a currency manipulator

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Again, has nothing to do with tariffs.

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I’ll take your response as a reluctant “yes”

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It's not. I said what I said (which is correct)

Trade deficits have much more important variables that determine the amount of the deficit. Currency and economic strength are the 2 largest factors, IIRC.

Poor countries and countries with weaker currency will have more exports to richer countries with stronger currencies.

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Because what the Administration is telling the American people are “tariffs” by other countries are not tariffs at all. They are using the term “tariff” in place of a completely different circumstance, hoping that Americans are too stupid about these things to notice. Trump is peddling nonsense.

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This post is nonsense. It does not make sense, try harder or stop talking.

Trump seems to understand what most Americans (or just people worldwide) do not - modern taxation policy is about influencing behaviors, not collecting revenue. The democrats successfully changed this narrative by normalizing individual taxation in the name of punishing the rich, which is of course a political strategy of labeling winners and losers. We have indeed gotten quite used to these narratives. But framing every taxation policy this way for decades has left us with not enough revenue to pay for our spending - a very real and easily understood problem for any entity that wishes to grow its revenues. Prioritized Individual taxation policy inherently limits tax base, whereas taxation at the industrial or even global level can alter the tax base in a compounded manner. Actual policy still focuses on businesses, but it’s the emotional draw of who is paying their “fair share” that allows ill-informed and self serving opinions to enter the conversation.

The fact is, a taxing authority benefits far more from increasing transaction volume than it does strictly with revenue collection, as the latter is dependent on the former. We have way too many people with limited understanding weighing in on this, these people are only capable of assessing this policy based on who is mad about it. There are still millions of people that think we can solve our problems by forcing the “rich” to pay their fair share, ignoring they have 50% chance of not paying any taxes at all.

We are investing in the rest of the world more than any other nation, and piling up debt in the process. That’s not a winning formula for anyone involved.

Switzerland is nothing like the US, they have generated and preserved wealth like very few other countries by prioritizing their best interests. They are frankly (hehe) lucky they have anything to trade at all as a landlocked country in the mountains.

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They're related

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Right.

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they're not dependent

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I never suggested that they were and that wasn’t the question

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Prolonged trade deficits hurt our currency.

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Isn't the whole point of Trump's economic shift to weaken the dollar and move us back to manufacturing economy?