trump’s ‘jobs boom’ is happening, just not in america
Brenda Davis and UAW workers bravely attempt to locate a U.S. manufacturing job somewhere between the union hall and a Buick VIN number that says ‘Made in China’.
Autoworkers in Ohio and Michigan are wandering dealership lots playing a fun new game called “spot the American job in this American car that was built in China.” Brenda Davis spent 20 years at Ford in Ohio, bought a shiny new Buick from GM, and then got the delightful news that her "American" car was 100% made in China. Meanwhile, union lots still shame foreign-made vehicles, which must be awkward now that the foreign-made vehicles are the Big Three.
Democrats are schlepping through union halls in the Midwest trying to win back the workers who handed Donald Trump two presidential victories on the promise that he, a man whose name is on more Chinese-made merch than AliExpress, would revive American manufacturing. They’re holding town halls to explain that decades of NAFTA-style trade deals—kickstarted by George HW Bush, lovingly signed by Bill Clinton, and "fixed" by Trump’s USMCA cosplay—helped vaporize millions of manufacturing jobs. The US peaked at about 19.6 million manufacturing jobs in 1979; now we’re at around 12.6 million and a lot of those are hanging by a tariff-thread.
Trump loudly branded NAFTA the “worst trade deal ever made,” then swapped it for USMCA, which did approximately as much for Midwest workers as his university did for students. Plants like GM’s Springfield, Ohio facility are still watching workloads shrink and ownership change while workers wait for the next closure rumor to become a press release. Progressive Democrats like Rashida Tlaib now show up to explain that the real bipartisan consensus was a decades-long race to the bottom where CEOs got stock options, workers got pink slips, and Trump got two election wins off the ruins.
So here we are in Trump’s America: Midwestern workers asking, “Where are the jobs?” while both parties sift through the rubble of their own trade policies, and the only truly booming industry is politicians promising that this time the next deal, the next tariff, the next slogan will totally bring the factories back. Any day now. Right after the next campaign fundraiser.
#trade-war#forever-grifting
trump’s tariff genius drives american booze to canada
Empty "American Whiskey" shelves in Vancouver, replaced by signs telling people to buy Canadian — the invisible hand of the market, now wearing a giant middle finger to Trump's tariff policy.
The Art of the Deal has entered its "drive your own manufacturers out of the country" phase. After Trump decided the best way to negotiate with Canada was to carpet-bomb key sectors with tariffs, Canadian provinces responded the way any rational actor in a trade dispute would: they yanked American liquor off their government-controlled shelves and slapped up "BUY CANADIAN" signs where the Jack Daniels used to live.
Minnesota-based Phillips Distilling, maker of the extremely subtle beverage "Sour Puss," promptly lost 70% of its Canadian business because apparently Canadians are the only ones drinking this neon sugar fuel. Faced with Trump's MAGA-tariff brainwave and a cross-border boycott, the company did the one thing every Republican claims tariffs will never make you do: it moved production to Canada. Now the liquor is made in Montreal, the Canadians are happy, and US workers get to enjoy the pure patriotic satisfaction of watching their jobs shipped north for the glory of the trade war.
Trump’s team is reportedly annoyed that the liquor ban is still a key irritant in negotiations, but Carney’s government has helpfully explained that maybe, just maybe, provinces will stop boycotting American booze when the White House stops kneecapping their automotives, metals, and lumber. So far, the grand strategy of economic nationalism has accomplished the following: fewer US exports, more foreign production, and a thriving Canadian market for a drink called Sour Puss. Truly, a masterclass in winning.
#trade-war#full-stupid#money
trump's trade war now billing americans for the privilege
Trump studies an economics chart, confidently circles the word 'tariffs,' and declares the problem solved.
US importers are set to get about $85bn in tariff refunds after the supreme court ruled that Donald Trump exceeded his authority with his all-you-can-eat 10% tariff buffet on basically every import. Customs and Border Protection has already shoveled out $20bn, with another $65bn coming, which is a fun way of saying: Trump illegally jacked up prices on everything, and now the government is quietly wiring money back to corporations while voters are still combing the couch cushions.
American businesses spent the last year getting punched in the balance sheet – from Kentucky whiskey distilleries shutting down for a year to Walmart hiking prices on the poor people Trump pretends to champion. The Tax Foundation estimates households effectively ate a $1,000 tax hike in 2025 and another $700 this year, while Trump praised companies that didn't seek refunds and ominously promised to "remember" the ones that did. Because nothing screams "free market" like the president running an enemies list over who wants their money back from his unlawful tariffs.
Despite the Supreme Court rebuke and a trade court smacking down his next attempt, Trump is still trying to duct-tape new tariffs onto different statutes like a guy reusing a rejected coupon at the checkout. Businesses will mostly get made whole; households, not so much. The populist revolution, it turns out, is just regular people paying more for groceries so Trump can cosplay as a trade warrior before the courts drag him back to the Constitution again.
#trade-war#killing-democracy#full-stupid
china buys 200 planes, trump sells 100% bs
Trump and Xi on a red carpet in Beijing, each getting exactly what they came for: Xi gets leverage, Trump gets a banquet and a bragging tweet.
China’s Ministry of Commerce politely set fire to Trump’s version of reality, confirming that yes, tariffs were absolutely discussed during his big summit with Xi Jinping, despite Trump telling reporters, “We didn’t discuss tariffs.” Cool, so we’re now at the stage of diplomacy where foreign governments have to fact-check the President of the United States in official statements.
While they were at it, Beijing also confirmed it’s buying 200 Boeing planes and reopening the door to U.S. beef, which Trump has been bragging about like he personally wrestled the cattle and assembled the fuselages in his spare time. China framed it as part of a broader understanding not to escalate tariffs — and then immediately warned that if Washington hikes duties again, they’ll hit back. So the White House gets to wave around a big shiny airplane order for the cameras, and China gets leverage plus public documentation that Trump promised not to screw with tariffs beyond last fall’s so-called “truce.”
In other words, Xi Jinping walks away with a strategic paper trail and trade stability, and Trump walks away with talking points, a photo on a red carpet, and one more documented instance of saying something that the other side quickly, calmly, and officially calls false. Art of the Deal now apparently means: you brag, they bank.
#trade-war#full-stupid
trump visits china, returns with several imaginary trade deals
Trump and Xi Jinping stand side by side in Beijing, each wondering if the other has any idea what was supposedly just agreed to.
Trump wrapped up a two-day visit to Beijing declaring he'd struck "fantastic trade deals" with Xi Jinping, which is a bold statement given that neither side seems able to locate any actual deals. The US got no major trade breakthroughs, China got a nice photo-op, and the rest of us got another episode of The Art of the Boast.
Reporters asked for details, and the administration basically handed them a vibes-based press release. Trump called it a success, Xi smiled politely, and the tangible outcome appears to be… a video explainer from the BBC. It's classic Trump diplomacy: declare total victory, offer zero specifics, and hope no one notices that the only thing he brought back from Beijing was more campaign footage and a fresh opportunity to later justify whatever tariff tantrum he feels like throwing.
So what did we learn from Trump's visit to China? That the bar for "fantastic" has been buried somewhere under the US trade deficit, and that the White House is still treating international economic policy like a real-estate open house: all staging, no substance, and definitely don’t open any closets.
#trade-war#forever-grifting
trump summons the ceo court for another china photo-op
Trump hosts a support group for CEOs learning to pretend his trade chaos is a business strategy.
Trump has once again assembled his favorite species of American — the billionaire CEO — as set dressing for his latest attempt to look tough on China while desperately wanting a deal he can call "historic" on Fox & Friends. NBC notes that the invite to top executives is mostly posturing, which is a polite way of saying "stage-managed cosplay of economic statecraft" where the people whose supply chains he wrecked are dragged in to clap for the arsonist.
The White House is selling this as high-stakes strategy; in practice it's a casting call for whichever corporate leaders are willing to nod gravely while Trump alternates between threatening more tariffs and insisting the U.S. and China have a "fantastic relationship." Workers, farmers, and small businesses who got steamrolled by his trade war don't get an invite to this little oligarch salon — just the folks who can quietly pass the costs down the line and then pocket the tax cuts.
So the "deal" talk is less about fixing structural problems with China and more about producing a market-calming photo-op: Trump, Xi, and a ring of CEOs pretending this is all part of a 4D chess plan and not the diplomatic equivalent of a hostage negotiation conducted by reality TV producers. It’s the Trump doctrine in one tableau: break global trade, then ask the richest guys in the room to help you spin the rubble as a win.
#trade-war#oligarchy#money
trump's big strong tariffs quietly turn into a $166bn refund line
A majestic government refund portal heroically trying to mop up $166bn of Trump’s trade-war cosplay with a digital teaspoon.
The great nationalist trade crusade has officially entered its chargeback phase. After the supreme court smacked down Trump’s IEEPA tariff joyride, the feds are now processing refunds on more than $166bn in fees that about 330,000 importers were forced to cough up so the former guy could LARP as a tariff genius. The fun twist: the bureaucracy everyone assumed would bury this for years is … actually working. Not fast, not elegantly, but in that uniquely American way where you upload something called a "Consolidated Administration and Processing for Entries Declaration" and pray to the Ace Secure Data Portal gods.
Businesses can get their money back, as long as they go through their original customs broker — because the government remembers how the pandemic-era Employee Retention Tax Credit turned into a buffet for fraud mills. So now small firms get to call the broker they fired for being useless and ask them, politely, to stop being useless for 60–90 days. On the bright side, some big shippers like FedEx, UPS, and DHL say they’ll actually pass refunds back to customers. Meanwhile Amazon, Apple, Costco, and the rest are sitting in the corner very quietly, presumably measuring whether sharing the cash would violate their core corporate ethos of keeping the money.
The cherry on this sundae of policy malpractice: a bunch of businesses already deducted those Trump tariffs on their 2025 taxes, so the 2026 refund will be taxable income. Trump’s trade war was such a success that companies now need accountants just to unwind the privilege of having funded it. The MAGA tariff era started as an emergency economic power and ended as an IRS line item and a government refund portal. Truly, the art of the deal.
#trade-war#forever-grifting#money
hostage-taking, but make it tariffs
Trump explains international trade to the EU: ‘Nice car industry you’ve got there. Shame if something… 25 percent happened to it.’
Donald Trump has decided that the best way to celebrate the United States’ 250th birthday is by threatening its closest trading partners like a mob boss running a Fourth of July protection racket. The EU has until 4 July to ratify a trade deal or face “much higher” tariffs, Trump announced on Truth Social, because nothing says stable global order like turning the anniversary of independence into a deadline for an economic hostage note.
The deal, struck in Scotland last year and already partially moving forward, set most European goods at 15% tariffs, with cars cut to 15% as well. That still wasn’t theatrical enough for Trump, who’s now vowing to jack EU car and truck tariffs up to 25% while insisting the agreement promised tariffs would be cut to zero – a fascinating reinterpretation of reality not reflected in the actual, you know, text of the deal. This all comes after the US supreme court ruled in February that he had exceeded his authority with his earlier tariff binge, forcing the administration to slap on a “temporary” 10% duty while they search for new, more durable ways to cosplay a trade war president without immediately tripping over the Constitution again.
EU lawmakers have already given conditional approval to the deal but, because Europe still bothers with process, member states actually have to sign off before it takes effect. Trump’s response is to treat that as betrayal rather than basic governance, declaring he has been “waiting patiently” — which is an interesting phrase for a man who measures time only in cable segments and rally applause breaks. As Cyprus tries to maintain “positive momentum” in talks, Trump is back to his favorite move: threatening allies, ignoring legal limits, and using America’s economic power as a blunt instrument for domestic political theater. Trade policy by tantrum remains very much in effect.
#trade-war#killing-democracy
trump’s illegal tariffs were the easy part — now comes not giving the money back
Small business owner waits for illegal Trump tariffs to be refunded; federal government responds with an exciting new game called ‘Have You Tried Hiring 12 Lawyers?’
Richard Brown, a one-man sneaker-accessory importer in Ohio, woke up to the news that the Supreme Court had finally noticed a tiny problem: most of Trump’s tariffs were illegal. After a year of paying those unlawful duties, Brown quite reasonably assumed the federal government would, you know, give him his money back. Instead, he’s starring in a real-time documentary about how Washington can turn a clear-cut refund into a years-long bureaucratic escape room.
While mega-corps like Costco and Revlon lawyered up in advance and filed suits to lock in their claims, Brown has… himself, a friend in Virginia, and sometimes his dad. Trump officials immediately started warning that refunds would be “complex” and could take years — which is a very polite way of saying, "We illegally took your money and now we’re going to dare you to spend even more trying to get it back." Trade experts are openly worrying that billions in unlawful tariff collections may simply never be repaid, effectively turning Trump’s failed trade war into a forced loan from small businesses to an administration that lost in court and is still acting like it won.
So the scoreboard looks like this: Trump slaps on tariffs that the Supreme Court later torpedoes, Customs happily vacuumed up the cash, and now the government is shrugging at the prospect of returning it — especially to people who can’t afford armies of lawyers and customs brokers. The big guys get refunds; the little guys get a master class in how executive overreach plus red tape can quietly morph into legalized theft. Winning.
#trade-war#money#killing-democracy
europe must pay for greenland, apparently
Trump and Ursula von der Leyen shake hands like two people who both know one of them is about to light the trade deal on fire.
Donald Trump has decided Europe needs a little more "freedom" in the form of a 25% tariff on EU cars and trucks, because he says they're "not complying" with a trade deal he can't be bothered to explain. The same EU that just spent months wrestling his tantrum over annexing Greenland into a legal clause that literally says they can walk away if the U.S. starts threatening their territorial integrity. Totally normal stuff to have to write into a trade agreement with your supposed closest ally.
While grown-ups in Brussels were trying to sort out steel and aluminium details, Trump skipped straight to holding the European auto industry hostage, because if there's one thing he loves, it's an economic gun pointed at someone else's head. He’s now telling European carmakers they can avoid the tariffs by moving production to the U.S., like a mob boss offering "protection" to the shops he just finished smashing. And yes, this is the same guy whose big "Liberation Day" tariff binge under IEEPA just got ruled illegal by the Supreme Court, with companies now lining up for refunds — but don't worry, this new round of economic roulette is under a "different legal process," so what could possibly go wrong?
Trump is bragging that there has "never been anything like what is happening in America today," and for once he’s right. You don’t usually see a president simultaneously losing a Supreme Court case on illegal tariffs while launching a fresh trade broadside at an entire continent because they were insufficiently enthusiastic about his Greenland cosplay. Industrial policy by tantrum is now the backbone of U.S. trade strategy.
#trade-war#killing-democracy
king charles discovers trump’s off switch: scotch
King Charles leaves Washington having discovered that US trade policy can be rewritten with a state visit, a speech about alliances, and the promise of better whisky photos at Mar-a-Lago.
Donald Trump has announced he’s lifting US tariffs on Scotch whisky, not because of a coherent trade strategy or economic analysis, but because the King and Queen of the United Kingdom were very nice to him at the White House. After slapping broad tariffs on British goods in 2025, Trump is now bragging on Truth Social that Charles and Camilla “got me to do something nobody else was able to do, without hardly even asking!”—which is less a flex and more a confession that US trade policy is just whatever flattery-based roulette wheel is spinning in his head that day.
Rather than admit his tariffs helped tank Scotch exports and cost the industry an estimated £4m a week, Trump framed this as a benevolent royal favor to "two very important Industries within Scotland and Kentucky" and their magical wooden barrels. The Scotch Whisky Association is understandably relieved to stop paying for Trump’s economic cosplay, but the bigger message is clear: if you want stable, rules-based trade with the United States, forget diplomats and trade reps—send a monarch, pour him a drink, compliment his crowd sizes, and watch a 10% tariff disappear like Trump’s attention span during a briefing.
So the United States now has a de facto trade doctrine: tariffs go on when Trump is mad, tariffs come off when someone important pats him on the head and calls him special. King Charles used his congressional speech to gently nudge Trump back toward “traditional alliances”; Trump responded by proving that the special relationship is alive and well—as long as it comes with a royal visit and a branded bottle.
#trade-war#full-stupid#money
trump starts a trade war, loses the liquor aisle
Mark Carney patiently explaining to the world’s largest economy that if you violate your own trade deal, you don’t also get to sell the whiskey.
Donald Trump has finally done it: he’s managed to turn Canadians against American booze. In retaliation for Trump’s latest round of USMCA-violating tariffs on steel, aluminum, autos and agriculture, Canadian provinces have yanked US liquor off store shelves. Ontario’s liquor control board – one of the biggest alcohol buyers on the planet – basically told Trump’s distillers: enjoy your freedom, somewhere else.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, apparently the only adult in this bar fight, is politely explaining that if Trump stops using tariffs as a campaign prop, Canada might consider letting Jack Daniel’s back across the border. Until then, Canada is happy to sit on its hands and watch Trump’s political support erode under the combined weight of an unpopular war with Iran and his ‘trade strategy’ of lighting free trade agreements on fire and calling it economic nationalism.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is very upset that Canada is using alcohol as leverage, calling the boycott “disrespectful” — which is rich, given Trump is the one shredding the rules of the USMCA and threatening consequences like a mob boss with a worse vocabulary. Canadian business leaders are openly talking about using booze as a bargaining chip while they wait to see what other lopsided deals Trump cuts, betting that time and math (and the size of Canada’s metals and critical minerals exports) are on their side.
So the Trump administration has managed to weaponise tariffs, destabilise North American trade, and get Canadians to skip cross-border trips and US spirits, costing the US “tens of billions” by Ontario’s Doug Ford’s estimate. Hell of a legacy: making Canada the sober, strategic one in the relationship.
#trade-war#killing-democracy
america’s hottest new website is where you get your illegal trump taxes back
Behold: the digital front door to getting your money back from the unconstitutional tantrum formerly known as Trump’s tariff policy.
Remember those "beautiful" tariffs Trump swore other countries were paying? Turns out, the Supreme Court has now confirmed what every sentient economist was screaming the whole time: most of those tariffs were unconstitutional, and U.S. businesses were the ones shaken down for the cash. So on Monday, Customs flips the switch on the hottest new destination on the internet: a federal refund portal where tens of thousands of importers will line up to get their money back from Trump's little lawless trade cosplay.
Only catch? It's going to take 60–90 days to start returning the $166 billion the government illegally vacuumed up, and the first phase doesn’t even cover all the damage. Customs says about $127 billion is headed to companies that signed up for electronic payments, while small businesses and retailers are left trying to reverse-engineer who actually paid what in a years-long shell game of price hikes and supply-chain markups. Consumers, who were told tariffs were a "great deal," will see about as much of this windfall as they saw of Trump's infrastructure weeks.
Small businesses had to organize and drag the government through the courts just to get clarity on how to be refunded for taxes that never should have existed. Now retailers like the hardware-store owner in North Carolina are reduced to politely begging manufacturers to "do the right thing" and share some of the refund money that was extracted under an illegal policy. The state uses its power to run an unconstitutional cash grab, then tosses everyone a glitchy web portal and a 90‑day processing window as if that's some grand act of mercy. Trump’s trade war started as a lie, ran as a shakedown, and is ending as a bureaucratic scavenger hunt.
#trade-war#killing-democracy
trump discovers tariffs are just taxes in a red hat
Trump proudly holds up a tariff chart in the Rose Garden like a kid showing off a crayon drawing of a house fire he started himself.
Donald Trump celebrated “Liberation Day” by liberating Americans from their money, slapping a minimum 10% tariff on foreign goods and jacking the average effective tariff rate from 2.5% to about 10% in a year. He promised a manufacturing renaissance and easy cash for the government; instead, the US and China basically hit pause on trading with each other while companies scrambled to re-route supply chains like they were fleeing a burning building.
US imports from China cratered ~30%, exports to China fell more than 25%, and Chinese goods dropped below 10% of total US imports — levels not seen since the days when people still bought CDs. The “decoupling” Trump started in his first term has finally landed, only now it’s more expensive and more chaotic. Multinationals didn’t stop trading; they just moved production to Vietnam and Mexico and kept going, proving that the one thing tariffs really punished was the illusion that Trump understands how global supply chains work.
Meanwhile, traditional allies got the message that America is now run like a mood swing. Canada, the UK and others started rewiring trade toward Europe and elsewhere, hedging against the guy who wakes up and decides your exports need a 10% loyalty tax. Global trade “held up,” economists note, which is a polite way of saying everyone else quietly built workarounds while the US government tried to cosplay as a 1930s tariff state. Trump promised to make America the center of global trade again; he’s just doing it by encouraging everyone to trade around us.
#trade-war#full-stupid
trump ‘annexes’ canada, accidentally annexes lewiston’s income instead
Behold the radical new Trump economic model: replace busloads of Canadian shoppers with vibes and a 30% revenue hole.
The MAGA brain trust has discovered a bold new form of economic development: drive away the only customers who actually have money. Thanks to Trump’s hefty tariffs, random annexation fantasies about turning Canada into a US state, and the ever-present threat of ICE harassment at the border, Canadians have decided they’d rather not risk a weekend getaway to the Land of Freedom Detentions. Border towns like Lewiston, New York, that once lived off a steady stream of Ontarians buying cheap milk, gas and outlet mall jeans are now stuck with empty parking lots and 30% revenue drops.
Local business owners are cutting staff and expenses while politely explaining that, no, they don’t blame Canadians for staying away from a country whose president treats allies like hostile takeovers and tourists like suspects. Regional tourism officials have literally stopped advertising to Canada because why throw ad dollars at people who are being actively threatened with tariffs, war talk and annexation jokes from Washington? America First has once again translated to “America’s border towns last,” as Trump’s performative tough-guy trade war and imperial cosplay keep kneecapping the very small businesses he insists he’s saving.
#trade-war#forever-grifting
americans discover tariffs are just a fancy word for 'price hike'
A shopper contemplates whether patriotism is really worth an 18% markup on coffee and the slow collapse of their checking account.
Turns out when a game show landlord-president slaps tariffs on "virtually every import" like he's ordering appetizers, the bill eventually shows up at your table. A new Harris Poll finds 72% of Americans think Trump’s tariffs have hurt more than helped, and 70% say they’ve personally been hit with higher prices. Even 64% of Republicans — the people who still clap at his rallies when he calls tariffs the "most beautiful" word in the dictionary — admit, yes, the magic trade wall is actually just a tax on their groceries.
The pain is most obvious where it always is under Trump: at the grocery store. Beef is up 14%, coffee is up 18%, and presumably the price of Advil to cope with reading your receipt is following close behind. This is all happening after the Supreme Court had to step in and tell President Tariff that no, he cannot just unilaterally rewire the global trading system because he saw a chart on Fox Business. The Court capped his little tariff joyrides at 150 days, so Trump responded like any responsible statesman: by announcing a new 15% global baseline tariff and launching fresh trade investigations to justify more of the same.
Republicans, meanwhile, are trying to convince independent voters that they feel their pain on the cost of living, while simultaneously cheering on the guy who lit the price bonfire in the first place. A solid majority of GOP voters insist tariffs have brought back manufacturing jobs — a belief supported by vibes, nostalgia, and zero actual evidence. Democrats and independents are far more likely to say those jobs are not coming back, possibly because they’ve noticed that “Made in USA” doesn’t appear on a lot of things besides political hats and campaign lies.
So heading into the midterms, the party of "Bidenflation" is saddled with a president whose signature economic policy is broadly despised, visibly raising prices, partially ruled illegal, and still being expanded. Trump keeps promising tariffs will make America "stronger, safer and richer than ever before"; the poll suggests they’ve mainly made Americans hungrier, poorer, and extremely familiar with store-brand everything.
#trade-war#full-stupid#money
trump loses tariff case, responds by speedrunning a new one
Trump studies a map of the global economy, circles the entire planet, and writes: "10%".
Senate Democrats have introduced the "Small Business Liberation 2.0 Act," which is basically a congressional attempt to bubble-wrap mom-and-pop shops from Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs. After the Supreme Court nuked his "liberation day" tariffs as illegal, Trump immediately hit "new game" and slapped on a fresh 10% global baseline tariff using section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974—because when the courts say no, this White House hears "try a different loophole."
The bill from Ed Markey and friends would exempt goods imported by or for small businesses and ban price gouging tied to the new tariffs, which have already pushed some entrepreneurs into extreme stress and financial hardship. One small business owner says tariffs on Brazil alone jacked his costs by about $1 million in a year, but sure, tell us again how this is all about helping the forgotten working man. Meanwhile, more than 1,000 companies have sued over Trump’s tariff policies, and a trade court judge just ordered the government to cough up billions in refunds for tariffs that were collected illegally—a fun little detail the "tariffs are good, and easy to win" crowd tends to skip.
Of course, with Republicans running the Senate, this small business relief bill will likely die quietly while Trump’s trade war LARP continues. So the scorecard so far: courts say the last tariffs were unlawful, importers get refunds, small businesses get wrecked, and Trump responds by launching Tariffs 2.0 on a 150-day timer. Winning, if by "winning" you mean "litigating the same bad idea until the economy taps out."
#trade-war#killing-democracy
trump’s illegal tariffs get a $130bn refund policy
Customs and Border Protection prepares to press Ctrl+Z on $130bn of Trump’s ‘very legal, very cool’ tariffs.
Turns out Donald Trump’s big, tough trade policy was less “4D chess” and more “accidentally robbed 300,000 businesses and hoped no one would notice.” A judge on the US Court of International Trade has now ordered the government to start paying back potentially billions in illegal tariffs after the supreme court ruled Trump’s IEEPA-based cash grab was, minor detail, unlawful. The US collected more than $130bn this way, because why just abuse emergency powers for foreign policy when you can also use them as your own personal tax machine?
Customs and Border Protection is crying that fixing this is “unprecedented” and may require manually reviewing more than 70 million entries, which is what happens when you let a reality TV landlord improvise trade law on national security grounds. Judge Richard Eaton, sounding like a kindergarten teacher dealing with a very lazy student, basically replied: you already do refunds every day, push the button and pay people back—with interest. Over 300,000 mostly small importers are now waiting to see if they’ll actually get their money, or if the government will turn this into the world’s least fun rebate program.
Roughly 2,000 lawsuits are already stacked up, all saying the same thing: the tariffs Trump shoved through under IEEPA were illegal and everyone wants their cut of the refund pile. Eaton has no interest in hearing thousands of near-identical cases and is pushing for an across-the-board system so importers can get their money without hiring a lawyer or sacrificing three years of their life to paperwork. The Trump administration called it “America First.” The courts are now calling it what it was: unlawful duties, please line up for your reimbursement.
#trade-war#lawlessness#forever-grifting
trump’s tariff cosplay sends small businesses to paperwork hell
A small business owner tries to calculate tariff costs and refund paperwork, discovers the true meaning of ‘Trump-era streamlined government.’
Trump’s glorious "liberation day" tariffs have now been liberated from existence by the US supreme court, which helpfully ruled that the president cannot just LARP as Congress and slap global tariffs on everything that moves. That little constitutional speed bump means up to $175bn in refunds might be owed to businesses that got hit with his trade war cosplay. Naturally, the process to get that money back is confusing, expensive, and slow, so it’s basically a government-sponsored escape room for accountants.
While the political class debates whether this was 4D chess or just a guy mashing buttons on the tariff console, small businesses are stuck with the bill. They’ve eaten higher import costs, scrambled their pricing, wrecked their supply chains, and now get to pay legal fees and navigate a bureaucratic obstacle course just to maybe recover the cash Trump burned for a photo op. The Guardian is asking owners to describe how this has wrecked their margins and planning, because if there’s one consistent feature of Trump-era "economic policy," it’s that regular people get the chaos while the strongman gets the cameras.
So the scoreboard: Trump’s trade war loses in court, small businesses lose money and time, and the White House gets to pretend this was all part of a bold strategy. America First, as long as you don’t own a shop, a factory, or a calculator.
#trade-war#killing-democracy
trump’s trade war speedruns every bad law from the 60s and 70s
Trump stares sadly at the lectern where someone forgot to write "Tariffs are a tax on you, not China" in 72-point font.
Donald Trump just got told by the Supreme Court that, no, he cannot declare a vibes-based "international emergency" and use a 1977 law to tax imports from basically the entire planet. So naturally, within 24 hours he signed a new proclamation grabbing a different dusty statute – Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act – to slap a "temporary" 10% global tariff on almost everything, then hopped on social media and casually jacked it up to 15%. Who needs deliberation or policy process when you have a login and a pen?
Existing trade deals? Treaties? Negotiated 10% rates for countries like the UK and Australia? All now stuck in a Schrödinger’s agreement where the White House claims it will "continue to honour" legally binding deals while also saying everyone gets the new global tariff. Section 122 requires non-discriminatory tariffs, so partners like the EU and Japan are right back where they started: paying more and getting less, courtesy of the Art of the Deal.
Meanwhile, businesses are staring at a 15% tariff sledgehammer that could add £2–3bn in costs just for UK exports, with sectors from chemicals to food and textiles suddenly repricing everything overnight. Consumers get the usual Trump-era bonus prize: higher prices and more inflation. Oh, and thanks to the Supreme Court ruling that last year’s "reciprocal" tariffs were unlawful, there’s roughly $130bn in potential refunds hanging in the air while hundreds of firms lawyer up to get their cut. Economists are already noting that the administration can try to dodge those payouts by slapping on fresh, legally different tariffs instead – a sort of perpetual-motion grift machine powered by lawsuits and lobbying.
As a finishing touch, Trump still has Section 232 "national security" tariffs in his back pocket, with Commerce already investigating everything from semiconductors to aircraft. So businesses don’t just have one chaotic tariff regime; they have a whole choose-your-own-adventure of overlapping, arbitrary levies. The message from Washington is clear: the rule of law is optional, but the bill for this trade cosplay will be very, very real.
#trade-war#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
