Trump slaps tariffs on empty island, internet sends in the penguins
What an absolute idiot
A widely shared image showing a penguin in place of Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office during his recent row with the US president and Vice President JD Vance.
Saturday, 05 Apr 2025 7:00 AM MYT
WASHINGTON, April 5 — Donald Trump’s tariffs have become a black and white issue on social media, where penguin memes have gone viral after he targeted an island inhabited by the flightless birds, but no people.
One widely shared image on Thursday showed a penguin in place of Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office during his recent row with the US president and Vice President JD Vance.
Another meme showed US First Lady Melania Trump gazing up at an emperor penguin — in place of former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — while Trump looks askance.
Trump’s announcement of worldwide tariffs on Wednesday certainly received an icy reception in many countries.
But there has also been bafflement about why some of the most remote parts of the world have been targeted.
A case in point: why would Trump slap 10 per cent tariffs on all exports from the Heard and McDonald Islands, a barren sub-Antarctic Australian territory without a human population, but four different species of penguin?
“The penguins have been ripping us off for years,” Anthony Scaramucci, who was Trump’s former communications chief for 11 days in his first term and is now a vocal critic, joked on X.
“Donald Trump slapped tariffs on penguins and not on Putin,” posted US Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, referring to the fact that Russia was not on the US tariff list.
The White House said sanctions on Russia over President Vladimir Putin’s war on meant that there was no “meaningful” trade on which to impose tariffs.
Trump also caused puzzlement with his 29 per cent tariff on Norfolk Island, a tiny Australian territory in the Pacific with a population of a little over 2,000 humans.
“I’m not quite sure that Norfolk Island, with respect to it, is a trade competitor with the giant economy of the United States,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
Britain’s remote Falkland Islands — home to one million penguins, and most famous for a 1982 war fought by Britain to repel Argentinian invaders — was hit by 41 per cent exports even though the UK only faces 10 per cent.
Trump’s tariffs have however been no laughing matter for global markets, with US stocks suffering their worst day since the Covid pandemic in 2020. — AFP
Heard and McDonald Islands!
ReplyDeleteThe secret revealed. Trump's team knows more than anyone else.
Wakakakaka…
Within 2 days, just after the announcement of new America liberation day, Dow Jones index snowballed downhill with 3k+ points.
ReplyDeleteThe work of a single man. Trump indeed a great yankee businessman of the year!
The question would be, is there record of import from this penguin island in the US Custom and what item would that be and how long has the import from this island with penguins only being happening?
ReplyDeletehttps://t.me/professor_patriot_official/35462
DeleteBREAKING: Trump Exposes Trade Loophole with Heard and McDonald Islands
Mainstream media and Democrats have been caught misleading the public again. It has come to light that the U.S. has been trading with the Heard and McDonald Islands, including in 2023, a fact confirmed by Census.gov. Despite being a remote area, goods from Europe labeled as originating from these islands were used to potentially avoid tariffs. Trump’s decisive actions prevented any backdoor attempts to bypass tariffs, ensuring that even accidental mistakes would still face penalties. His strategy has once again proven his commitment to protecting American interests and enforcing fair trade practices.
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https://t.me/professor_patriot_official/35462
DeleteBREAKING: Trump Exposes Trade Loophole with Heard and McDonald Islands
Mainstream media and Democrats have been caught misleading the public again. It has come to light that the U.S. has been trading with the Heard and McDonald Islands, including in 2023, a fact confirmed by Census.gov. Despite being a remote area, goods from Europe labeled as originating from these islands were used to potentially avoid tariffs. Trump’s decisive actions prevented any backdoor attempts to bypass tariffs, ensuring that even accidental mistakes would still face penalties. His strategy has once again proven his commitment to protecting American interests and enforcing fair trade practices.
🇺🇸Join👉 @SGTnewsNetwork
📎 Twitter ▪️ Truth Social
Trump's retaliated tariffs on the effected countries r evaluated based on calculated the size of each country's trade imbalance on goods with the United States and divided that by how much America imports from that nation. It then took half that percentage and made it the new tariff rate.
ReplyDeleteThus, countries exported more to & imported less from USofA would face huge retaliation tariff imposed by Trump.
Trump's team aint idiots.
Heard and McDonald Islands, Norfolk Island & Falkland Islands face huge imposed tariffs bcoz at something time in the recent past they had exported huge amounts of 'something' that costed billions to the land of free, milk & honey.
What were those goods shown in the books? No details been disclosed , just monetary values.
How about military HW, biological weapons that were secretly redirected from these lesser known locations back to US & had to go through normal import declarations?
Not possible?
In yanleeland, many secretive operations were done via ridiculous & yet openly transparent transactions - ie normal toilet seat & spanner wrench costing hundreds of thousand, paper drinking cups costing tens of thousand. These r just spurious clownish acts used to hide more devilish purposes. The more laughable the act, the led likely the truth is been unearthed.
There is a certain logic to this, even if over the top.
ReplyDeleteThere are many cases of nations with tiny populations (though not uninhabited) that have become massive sources of transactions, mainly for tax avoidance purposes.