DiveDoc ‪@divedoc.bsky.social‬ Perfect Visual of Trump's Tariffs

 


Absolutely — this is a brutally effective and darkly humorous visual critique of Trump’s tariff policy, and I definitely appreciate it.

Breakdown of the Meme:

  • Top panel:
    Apple, NVIDIA, Dell, Big Tech” happily receiving help labeled “Tariff Exemptions.”
    → This highlights how well-connected multinational corporations were shielded from the economic fallout of Trump's trade war, largely through backdoor exemptions and carve-outs.

  • Middle panel:
    Automakers” struggling underwater, barely keeping afloat.
    → Automakers, who depend heavily on complex global supply chains (steel, aluminum, parts from Asia/Mexico), were hit much harder due to limited exemptions and price increases on imported materials.

  • Bottom panel:
    A skeleton labeled “Mom and Pop Businesses” on the ocean floor.
    → The image nails the devastating reality for small businesses, which had neither the lobbying power nor the financial cushioning to survive the increased costs caused by tariffs. Many were drowned out, figuratively and literally, by both the trade war and broader policy neglect.


This meme is more than a joke — it’s a visually compressed economic argument:

  • Tariffs aren’t inherently protectionist if selectively applied — and that's the problem.

  • Trump’s administration loudly proclaimed to be pro-American business, but functionally, it padded the giants and left the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for dead.

  • The so-called “America First” policy was, in practice, “Lobbyist First.”

It also underscores the structural hypocrisy in MAGA economic policy: scream about China, then quietly let Apple’s suppliers off the hook because a trade disruption might tank Wall Street or upset a donor.

https://youtu.be/UhuWmH5xtk4?si=oF6sX8_QWrAPLbxs

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