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Trump Boasts About Strong-Arming Trump Into Pausing Tariffs the ONION

who loses billions just because of him is everyone we are suffering from it ''the Deal''

Ryan Cohen @ryancohen Follow These tariffs are turning me in to a dem 2:39 PM Apr 3, 2025 1M Views 1.9K 1.2K ❤ 12K ☐ 307 1 <]

FELL FOR IT AGAIN AWARD MAKE GREAT thank you president Trump for defeating my WOKE retirement saving

X user @quendergeer shared the theory that the Trump administration's reciprocal tariffs were derived using AI, given that the list of countries being tariffed included islands like McDonald and Heard, which are barren, have active volcanos, and where no humans currently reside. Furthermore, the tweet puts forward the idea that the regions taxed were divided by internet domains and not according to governing bodies.

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Overview

Donald Trump's Reciprocal Tariffs, also known as Donald Trump's Import Tariffs or Trump Recession, refers to a viral debate and controversy surrounding United States President Donald Trump's plans for sweeping new import taxes on all goods entering the country. The Trump tariffs were announced in early April 2025 during a press conference in front of the White House, during which the President stated a national economic emergency and announced tariffs that will range from 10 percent to 49 percent depending on the country. The tariffs' announcement quickly fueled memes, jokes and discourse of a possible economic recession or "second Great Depression" after Trump alleged the country could have avoided the 1929 Great Depression with the same tariffs strategy he announced. Numerous memes also appeared poking fun at the seemingly random countries and islands chosen, such as the uninhabited "Heard Island and McDonald Islands"":knowyourmeme.com/memes/donald-trumps-penguin-tariffs that are mainly home to penguins. Memes about Orange Monday and the stock market crashing began making the rounds in early April 2025 as well.

Background

On April 2nd, 2025, United States President Donald Trump unveiled a baseline tariff on all imports of at least 10 percent on all goods entering the country, calling it "Reciprocal Tariffs," which occurred during the Make America Wealthy Again Event in front of the White House.

According to a BBC^[1] article, countries in the European Union and China will face higher rates for what Trump said was "payback due to unfair trade policies." President Trump's^[2] full speech was shared on his X account (seen below), amassing over 9 million views, 54,000 likes and 8,800 replies in a few hours.

https://t.co/CdTzF2sfMZ

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2025

Also on April 2nd, Trump uploaded a full list of the reciprocal tariffs^[3] against more than 180 countries on his Truth Social platform. The posts received more than 33,000 likes and 11,000 reposts combined (seen below).

DENT OF PRESIDE THE UNIT Reciprocal Tariffs Country Tariffs Charged to the U.S.A. Including Currency Manipulation and Trade Barriers U.S.A. Discounted Reciprocal Tariffs China 67% 34% European Union Vietnam Taiwan 39% 20% 90% 46% 64% 32% Japan 46% 24% India 52% 26% South Korea 50% 25% Thailand 72% 36% Switzerland 61% 31% Indonesia 64% 32% Malaysia 47% 24% Cambodia 97% 49% United Kingdom 10% 10% South Africa 60% 30% Brazil 10% 10% Bangladesh 74% 37% Singapore 10% 10% Israel 33% 17% Philippines 34% 17% Chile 10% 10% Australia 10% 10% Pakistan 58% 29% Turkey 10% 10% Sri Lanka 88% 44% Colombia 10% 10%

PRESID ENT OF THE THE UNI Reciprocal Tariffs Country Tariffs Charged to the U.S.A. Including Currency Manipulation and Trade Barriers U.S.A. Discounted Reciprocal Tariffs Peru Nicaragua Norway 10% 10% 36% 18% 30% 15% Costa Rica 17% 10% Jordan 40% 20% Dominican Republic 10% 10% United Arab Emirates 10% 10% New Zealand 20% 10% Argentina 10% 10% Ecuador Guatemala 12% 10% 10% 10% Honduras 10% 10% Madagascar 93% 47% Myanmar (Burma) 88% 44% Tunisia 55% 28% Kazakhstan 54% 27% Serbia 74% 37% Egypt 10% 10% Saudi Arabia 10% 10% El Salvador 10% 10% Côte d'Ivoire 41% 21% Laos 95% 48% Botswana 74% 37% Trinidad and Tobago 12% 10% Morocco 10% 10%

Reciprocal Tariffs Tariffs Charged to the U.S.A. Including Currency Manipulation and Trade Barriers U.S.A. Discounted Reciprocal Tariffs Algeria Oman Uruguay Country 59% 30% 10% 10% 10% 10% Bahamas 10% 10% Lesotho 99% 50% Ukraine 10% 10% Bahrain 10% 10% Qatar 10% 10% Mauritius 80% 40% Fiji 63% 32% Iceland 10% 10% Kenya Liechtenstein 10% 10% 73% 37% Guyana 76% 38% Haiti 10% 10% Bosnia and Herzegovina 70% 35% Nigeria 27% 14% Namibia 42% 21% Brunei 47% 24% Bolivia 20% 10% Panama 10% 10% Venezuela 29% 15% North Macedonia 65% 33% Ethiopia 10% 10% Ghana 17% 10%

PRESIDENT T OF THE Reciprocal Tariffs Tariffs Charged to the U.S.A. Including Currency Manipulation and Trade Barriers U.S.A. Discounted Country Reciprocal Tariffs Moldova 61% 31% Angola 63% 32% Democratic Republic of the Congo 22% 11% Jamaica 10% 10% Mozambique 31% 16% Paraguay 10% 10% Zambia 33% 17% Lebanon 10% 10% Tanzania 10% 10% Iraq 78% 39% Georgia 10% 10% Senegal 10% 10% Azerbaijan 10% 10% Cameroon 22% 11% Uganda 20% 10% Albania 10% 10% Armenia 10% 10% Nepal 10% 10% Sint Maarten 10% 10% Falkland Islands 82% 41% Gabon 10% 10% Kuwait 10% 10% Togo 10% 10% Suriname Belize 10% 10% 10% 10%

According to The Guardian,^[4] Trump's goals are to "bring manufacturing back to the US; respond to unfair trade policies from other countries; increase tax revenue; and incentivise crackdowns on migration and drug trafficking."

Developments

Response From World Leaders

U.S. President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs spawned backlash and criticism from various governments around the world, many of whom "pledged countermeasures on the U.S.," as Reuters^[5] reported.

On April 3rd, 2025, BBC^[7] uploaded a video covering the world leaders' reactions to Trump's tariffs, receiving over 79,000 views, 1,100 likes and 1,000 comments in six hours.

Online Reactions

The extensive reciprocal tariffs announced by President Donald Trump's executive order sparked numerous memes and jokes in the following hours and days, such as Photoshop edits of the reciprocal tariffs and montages of Trump signing the tariffs in front of the White House, as well as many netizens across social media sharing their humorous takes on the event.

For example, on April 2nd, 2025, X^[6] user @OJoelsen noticed that Trump's reciprocal tariffs plan put a 10 percent tariff on the Heard Island and McDonald territory, writing that the island "has a population of ZERO people and is inhabited only by penguins." The tweet (seen below) amassed more than 92,000 views and 4,000 likes in a day.

Orla Joelsen @OJoelsen. Follow X Trump has put a 10 percent tariff on the Heard Island and McDonald which has a population of ZERO people and is inhabited only by penguins. What do the penguins sell to the USA? km ONC-Marin Weine 0 1000 2000 GMT 2006 Jul 20 20:43:16 7:47 PM - Apr 2, 2025

On the same day, Redditor^[8] u/JoJoVonAnthro photoshopped a J.D. Vance Face Edit meme over the reciprocal tariffs sign Trump held and shared it to the /r/MemeTemplatesOfficial subreddit (seen below), captioning it, "Trump Presenting Favorite JD Vance Meme." The post received roughly 110 upvotes in a day.

On April 3rd, 2025, Redditor No_awards_please also posted a meme about the Heard Island and McDonald Islands tariff to the /r/dankmemes^[11] subreddit, receiving roughly 560 upvotes and 10 comments in three hours (shown below).

The only inhabitants of the Heard and McDonald Islands, which Trump has imposed 10% tariffs on. made with mematic

Second Great Depression Memes

A wave of memes and jokes about a "Second Great Depression" ensued on social media shortly after the tariffs reveal in early April 2025, especially after President Donald Trump claimed the United States could have avoided the 1929 Great Depression with the same tariffs strategy he announced.

For instance, X^[9] user @Acyn posted Trump's speech referencing the historical event on April 2nd, 2025 (seen below), amassing over 2.9 million views and 2,500 likes in a day.

Trump: In 1913, for reasons unknown, they established income tax so citizens rather than foreign countries would start paying the money necessary to run our government. Then in 1929, it all came to an abrupt end the great depression, it would have never happened if they had to… pic.twitter.com/YVwvvdnmaS

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 2, 2025

On the same day, X^[10] user @daydenjaniels5 posted a reaction video of a young man looking at the sky, captioning it, "Second Great Depression as soon as I graduate college." The post (seen below) amassed over 2.4 million views and 114,000 likes in a day.

Second Great Depression as soon as I graduate college pic.twitter.com/EDzowxwxl9 https://t.co/zqA5W3jy5p

— meth silchick (@daydenjaniels5) April 2, 2025

AI-Generated Tariff Formula Theories

Several internet users discussed the possibility that Trump's tariff formula was derived using LLMs like ChatGPT. On April 2nd, 2025, American economist @JamesSurowiecki tweeted^[12] about having reverse-engineered a possible explanation for the tariff pricing, writing, "for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us."

American economist @JamesSurowiecki tweeted out a possible explanation for how the Trump administration calculated what tariffs to levy on foreign countries, writing, "for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us."

On April 2nd, X^[13] user @krishnanrohit posted a series of images showing how several LLMs responded to the question of how to impose tariffs easily. The tweet shows Chat GPT, Gemini, Claude, and Grok all advising a formula similar to the one used by the U.S. government.

This might be the first large-scale application of AI technology to geopolitics.. 4o, o3 high, Gemini 2.5 pro, Claude 3.7, Grok all give the same answer to the question on how to impose tariffs easily. pic.twitter.com/r1GGubcz8c

— rohit (@krishnanrohit) April 3, 2025

On April 3rd, X^[14] user @quendergeer shared the theory that the Trump administration's reciprocal tariffs were derived using AI, given that the list of countries being tariffed included islands like McDonald and Heard, which are barren, have active volcanos, and where no humans currently reside. Furthermore, the tweet puts forward the idea that the regions taxed were divided by internet domains and not according to governing bodies.

The Verge^[15] published an article discussing the possibility that Donald Trump's tariffs were devised using LLMs on April 3rd, 2025.

Search Interest

External References

^[1] BBC – Trump to charge tariffs of up to 50% on 'worst offenders' globally

^[2] X – realDonaldTrump

^[3] Truth Social – realDonaldTrump

^[4] The Guardian – Trump’s tariffs – five key takeaways

^[5] Reuters – Trump tariffs: List of global responses and countermeasures

^[6] X – OJoelsen

^[7] YouTube – World leaders criticise Trump tariffs as 'major blow' | BBC News

^[8] Reddit – Trump Presenting Favorite JD Vance Meme

^[9] X – Acyn

^[10] X – daydenjaniels5

^[11] Reddit – r/dankmemes

^[12] Twitter / X – JamesSurowiecki

^[13] Twitter / X – krishnanrohit

^[14] Twitter / X – quendergeer

^[15] The Verge – Trump's Tariff Math Looks Like ChatGPT's

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Donald Trump's Reciprocal Tariffs / Trump Recession

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Overview

Background

https://t.co/CdTzF2sfMZ

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2025