Tariffs & Trade
1987
1987 For context, Regan warned back in the 80’s that tariffs are dangerous.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIAJLh9xmp-/?hl=en
2018
2018-03-01 Trump imposed tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum from China.
https://www.reuters.com/graphics/TRUMP-TARIFFS/STEEL/gdpznwgdzpw/
https://www.cfr.org/article/trumps-new-aluminum-and-steel-tariffs-explained-six-charts
2018-04-01 By April 2018, the U.S. entered a trade war with China.
2025 March
2025-03-06 Trump proposed linking a Ukraine minerals deal with a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war in effort to secure American access to Ukraine’s natural resources.
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/30/nx-s1-5382384/ukraine-us-minerals-deal
https://www.csis.org/analysis/breaking-down-us-ukraine-minerals-deal
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/01/world/what-we-know-about-trumps-ukraine-mineral-deal-intl
2025 April
2025-04-02 The White House posts reciprocal tariff charts on X which included uninhabited islands. The Commerce Secretary stated placing tariffs on uninhabited islands was intentional to tackle any “loopholes”.
2025 July
2025-07-30 Trump signed an executive order implementing an additional 40% tariff on Brazilian products. Several online sources suggested it was a retaliatory measure in response to Bolsonaro’s arrest.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/addressing-threats-to-the-us/
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trump-tariffs-put-bolsonaro-brazilian-right-bind-2025-07-15/
2025 August
2025-08-01 Trump’s trade war caused the manufacturing sector to lose 42,000 jobs between April 2025 through August 2025 alone.
2025-08-25 The Congressional Budget Office released a projected tariff revenue of $3.3T (trillion) but did not explain how that would weigh against the proposed $3.4T (trillion) budget increase proposed by the Trump administration, how to improve the job market, or what percentage of the tariffs consumers would be paying for themselves.
https://apnews.com/article/cbo-trump-tax-bill-republicans-senate-5f591bea21bd95eec45ba90c93c50687
https://www.crfb.org/blogs/tariffs-are-generating-meaningful-new-revenue
2025-08-29 The U.S. ended exemptions on small cost exports.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-ends-tariff-exemption-all-low-value-packages-2025-07-30
https://apnews.com/article/de-minimis-exemption-end-date-dutyfree-48862fc5b6a563a077284e364fb14f08
2025-08-29 The federal appeals court ruled that Trump’s tariffs were an overreach.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy983g8jr5do
2025 September
2025-09-18 Senator Elizabeth Warren sparred with Sara Eisen about tariff policies and explained to her how making a deal to exclude some companies’ items from tariffs is “greasing palms”.
2025 October
2025-10-24 Trump announced plans to buy beef from Argentina. For context, Trump had just bailed Argentina out with $20 BILLION in American taxpayer funds a week prior (unrelated note: American meat processing plants also profit from things like byproducts, leather, and glue).
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/12/economy/argentina-america-bailout-currency
2025-10-24 Trump refused trade talks with Canada because of an ad campaign out of Ontario featuring a 1987 video of Ronald Regan warning that tariffs are dangerous.
https://www.npr.org/2025/10/24/nx-s1-5584890/trump-trade-talks-canada
https://thehill.com/policy/international/5584667-carney-trump-canada-tariff-ad-apology/
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5571676-trump-ends-canada-trade-talks/
2025-10-30 Trump discussed trade deals in China with Xi Jinping, lowering tariff rates to 47% and establishing that China will buy 25M metric tons of soybeans annually over the next 3 years.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/30/trump-xi-south-korea-rare-earth-tariff-trade-war-nvidia.html
2025 November
2025-11-20 The Trump administration greatly expanded offshore sales of oil and gas and continued to tout Trump’s “drill-baby-drill” agenda.
https://www.heritage.org/energy/commentary/new-wave-american-offshore-energy
2025 December
2025-12-14 Trump announced he would use $12B of tariff revenue to bailout farmers who were hurting from the tariffs.
2026 February
2026-02-19 JP Morgan reported that mid-size companies were hit the hardest from tariffs and that manufacturing jobs were not actually coming back to the U.S. like Trump promised.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tariff-costs-triple-midsized-us-050100454.html
2026-02-20 During the State of the Union, Trump accused the Supreme Court of being unpatriotic and disloyal to the Constitution, and a disgrace to our nation, after the justices ruled 6-to-3 to invalidate his illegal tariffs. The next day he raised the global tariff to 15%.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-1287_4gcj.pdf
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-raises-global-tariff-15-percent
2026-02-27 After the Supreme Court ruled Trump’s tariffs illegal, sources reported that Trump administration officials were devising legal strategies to keep the billions of dollars acquired from the tariffs.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/26/trumps-next-tariff-fight-keeping-the-money-00799774
2026 March
2026-03-10 Strikes on Iranian oil fields wouldn’t just effect gas prices. It would also affect the global fertilizer trade for growing crops and global helium supplies.
https://carnegieendowment.org/emissary/2026/03/fertilizer-iran-hormuz-food-crisis
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/20/iran-war-us-farming-impact
https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/assessing-iran-wars-impact-global-fertilizer-supplies
https://www.ifpri.org/blog/the-iran-war-potential-food-security-impacts
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/15/nx-s1-5747927/the-war-in-iran-is-impacting-earths-supply-of-helium
2026-03-19 Scott Bessent said the US may lift sanctions on Iranian oil.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5791639-bessent-oil-sanctions-lift-iran-conflict/
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9d415g55nno
2026-03-19 Plastics are made with petroleum. The Iran war economic impact would reach consumer plastics such as food packaging, resin and polymer markets…essentially any materials made with plastics. Since plastics are a cheap way for corporations to pad their profit margins, it is to be expected they will also pass this cost onto the consumers. Also, the aluminum market was affected.
https://www.plasticstoday.com/resin-pricing/iran-war-creates-a-dire-strait-for-resin-pricing
2026-03-26 Wall Street suffered its worst day since the start of the Corona Virus pandemic. The price of crude oil topped $110 a barrel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGFkuH7GRX8&list=WL&index=1&t=388s
https://fortune.com/2026/03/18/oil-prices-110-crude-brent-iran-war-israel-strait-hormuz-lng/
2026-03-26 Ukrainian drones struck ports and refineries along the Baltic sea, halting at least 40% of Russian oil export capacity. Zelenskyy reported that the U.S. was making any security guarantees for Ukraine contingent upon Ukraine giving up its defense of the Eastern Donbas region.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGFkuH7GRX8&list=WL&index=1&t=388s