For millions of people, any one of the many unprecedented actions in the first 100 days of the second Trump presidency was enough to show that the US is barreling toward — or has already arrived at — billionaire-helmed fascism. Sure, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has indiscriminately fired thousands of federal employees and gutted the parts of the federal government that protect everyday people. And elsewhere, government funds are being spent on arresting immigrants with no criminal record and sending them to languish in prisons abroad; college students are being disappeared for their opinions on Palestine. But what really seems to have triggered Americans all across the political spectrum is Trump’s plan to levy steep tariffs on just about every country on Earth, and the resulting economic instability. When the stock market lost around $10 trillion in value over the course of a few days earlier in April following the announcement, even Trump’s loudest boosters started to worry.
Trump’s tariffs are not trade policy as much as they are a fishing expedition: What can he extract from trade partners and from US companies that can be spun as a win for him? Early tariff truces with Canada and Mexico suggest the deals don’t even have to be very good: much of what Canada agreed to do to target fentanyl had already been announced weeks or months prior. Trump’s tariffs are a cudgel looking for a target.
The extreme swings between “tariffs on,” “tariffs off,” and “tariffs somewhere in between” have given rise to a culture of constant tariff anxiety — for US trading partner countries, for private businesses, and especially for people who are not the ultrawealthy. Influencers peddle advice for what products to stock up on; billionaires sound the alarm, then quickly demur. The threat of tariffs — by now a MAGA buzzword and solution for all of the perceived wrongs against the US — is at once urgent and ambient.
In the past month, article after article has reported on the everyday items shoppers in the US were buying up before tariffs were due to take effect: Italian olive oil, teas, skincare and makeup products, expensive electronics, clothing, and more. Social media platforms like X, Instagram, and TikTok are filled with people sharing their large purchases, trying to anticipate what they’ll need that may go up in price. The call to “stock up” is ceaseless: it comes from influencers and public figures, from random people urging viewers to “buy up their Amazon carts,” from Mark Cuban, and from reports of panic-buying at Apple stores.
Should you be saving your money or buying a bunch of vanilla?
But even the preparations everyday people can actually make are a gamble; it’s a game of whack-a-mole, a moving target as tariffs shift day to day and week to week. If you are someone who uses Korean skincare, for example, your strategy of buying $500 worth of products may be different depending on whether you’re getting taxed 25 percent versus 10 percent. It is the difference between saving your money and buying a bunch of vanilla because you think Madagascar, a key vanilla supplier for the US, will get hit with 47 percent tariffs under Trump’s plan. If you rushed out to your nearest Best Buy because you thought consumer electronics were about to double in price, you perhaps felt like a fool a few days later when Trump said smartphones, computers, and other products from China would be excluded from the additional 125 percent tax — only to backtrack again hours later. The uncertainty of tariffs also, ironically, makes for a good marketing tactic: as far back as February, small businesses report getting emails from suppliers suggesting they stock up on components before prices inevitably rise. “Don’t wait,” one email from a magnet supplier reads. “Act now to avoid paying more later.”
Trump’s tariffs throw a wrench into every business’s supply chain, from giant corporations like Nintendo and Apple to small brands making personal care products and clothing. But despite the wide-ranging effects of tariffs, big tech companies were initially largely silent when Trump’s first rounds of taxes were announced. In general, some of the most transparent businesses have been the ones with the most to lose but the least power to change the hand they were dealt: the American denim brand worried about getting products into overseas markets, the indie cosmetics company warning of knock-on effects to the industry, or the sexual wellness brand adding a “Trump tariff surcharge” to customers’ shopping carts.
“By naming the surcharge, we hope to spark more conversations around how economic policies affect the things we use, love, and rely on,” Dame, the sexual wellness company, wrote on its site. “And most importantly, how they affect the small, mission-driven businesses trying to create change.” Small operations like Dame likely have little chance of getting a meeting with the President to grovel for tariff exceptions.
The businesses speaking out are those with the most to lose and the least power to change it
Trump’s proposed taxes on imports unnerved even the MAGA faithful. In January, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon backed Trump’s tariffs: “If it’s a little inflationary, but it’s good for national security, so be it,” Dimon told CNBC. “Get over it.” By early April, as the stock market was hemorrhaging trillions of dollars, his tune had changed, warning that Trump’s tariffs increased the chance of a recession. Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund investor who endorsed Trump, exhibited early signs of a crash-out on X, saying it was “not what we voted for” despite broad tariffs being one of Trump’s marquee campaign promises. When Trump once again backed down and instituted a 90-day pause, Ackman was back on the horse: “This was brilliantly executed by @realDonaldTrump,” he posted on X. “Textbook, Art of the Deal.”
Despite Trump’s about-face on his dubiously calculated tariff rates, the fact of the matter remains: the 125 percent tax on Chinese imports, the blanket 10 percent on everyone else, plus the additional tariffs on products from Canada, Mexico, and steel and automobile parts are severe. They will change how Americans shop, and how and what American companies produce. Consumers — especially low-income people — will likely be the first to feel it when their cheap imports will skyrocket in cost, perhaps without them realizing it (online orders from companies like Shein, Temu, and AliExpress are already more expensive than they were). Economists warn that it is difficult to control the effects of tariffs; price increases are unpredictable, and it’s possible that entire categories of products (especially from China) may become unavailable in the US, period.
The Trump administration wields tariffs like a weapon, shaking down anyone who might have something of value to them and their political agenda. Even when tariffs are temporarily “paused,” the threat of sudden change is omnipresent, as long as there is something to be gained for the administration. The only constant seems to be that everyone else gets squeezed.
