Trump’s Tariffs are Tariff-Fying

Donald Trump announced his new “reciprocal tariffs” at the White House on April 2nd. Source: Reuters

“Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.” Yikes. That medicine Trump’s talking about isn't fixing anything but plunging the Dow Jones by a small number of 2,200 points in one day. Definitely not wiping out trillions of dollars in value. Not to mention that it caused a trade war with China and rampant inflation for us. No, but everything’s fine. Not to worry.

Firstly, the working class that the Republicans claimed to represent instead of the Democrats in 2024 has been COMPLETELY betrayed. Working class people, who make up the base of America, are now paying high prices on electronics, shoes, clothing, alcohol, furniture, coffee, watches, and dozens of other products. How can the working class afford an extra $2,100 per year when thousands already struggle every year? Our world is a globalized economy, and mindlessly smashing it with a bat isn’t going to help. Rising inflation demands more government intervention and help, but wait. All those agencies and programs are cut.

It’s not just people, but it’s also businesses. Businesses are going to pay so many tariffs that they will inevitably pass down costs to their consumers. Not only that, but we can see hundreds of small businesses being forced to shut down because they simply cannot keep up with the price of goods. Such an interconnected world for business means that business is less likely to spring up in America because it’s way too expensive. Businesses are already pivoting to new markets, and it’s going to reduce the amount of capital and investment we can have in the United States. Looking at the world, supply chains and new factories have also been thrown into disarray because they are shocked that Trump could do this!!! I am appalled that nobody saw this coming because he had been talking about it the whole campaign.

Keep in mind that these tariffs are so specific that the administration has carefully chosen Heard Island and McDonald Island as sites for their 10% tariff. Ignore the fact that there’s been… 0 people in the last 10 years? But never mind that, somehow it’s a great idea to slam our allies and important importers with some high tariffs. Lesotho, in southern Africa, got slammed with a 50% tariff. What is that going to do for Lesotho?? Lesotho cannot pay for that. Or Vietnam and Bangladesh, who make a lot of electronics and clothing for us. Are we trying to pay thousands for our clothing now? None of these countries can pay for these tariffs, but he doesn’t care. All he wants is to “Make America Great Again.”

It is NOT going to Make America Great Again. These tariffs have shunned our allies and closed off our markets. The world is connected, and breaking those connections is going to do irreparable damage.