Daily Brief: Tariffs, Toys, and a Tired Economy

A cultural analysis of how Trump’s trade war is backfiring—grinding down consumer confidence, corporate stability, and global supply chains.

May 02, 2025

flock of birds — Photo by JJ Shev on Unsplash

In Today’s Email:

🍎 Apple slashes financial plans after $900M tariff blow
🛍️ Retailers abandon the US market amid small-parcel tariffs
🧸 Trump: “Two dolls instead of 30” — and higher prices for all
🧠 Cultural Lens: Authoritarian Oversight Meets Economic Short-Termism
📚 Book of the Week: Coal: A Human History
📱 TikTok Roundup: Broken Markets, Broken Promises
🗳️ Poll: Is this economic strategy working?

Trump’s second-term economic policies are consistent — consistently harmful.
Tariffs were supposed to bring jobs back, punish China, and protect American industry.

But they do exactly the opposite, just as every competent economist said they would

Now America has reduced investment, vanishing inventory, and rising costs at every level.

This isn’t really a policy, it’s a lack of governance.

And Americans are paying the price

Cultural Dimensions Overview

Short-Term Orientation vs. Long-Term Planning: Trump’s tariff policies prioritize immediate optics over economic health.
High Uncertainty Avoidance: Businesses are freezing investments, cutting programs, and fleeing the market to avoid unpredictable costs.
Power Distance: Trump’s offhand remarks reveal a leadership culture detached from economic consequences faced by average citizens.

The News

🍎 Apple Warns of Tariff-Related Financial Impact
Cultural Lens: Short-Term Orientation vs. Long-Term Planning

Apple announced a $10 billion cut to its stock buyback program and a projected $900 million hit this quarter, all due to increased costs from Trump’s tariffs.
The company is scrambling to reconfigure its supply chain. In a climate of shifting rules, even the biggest players can’t plan.

➡️ Read more

🛍️ New US Tariffs Drive Retailers Out of the Market
Cultural Lens: High Uncertainty Avoidance

Trump has ended the “de minimis” tariff exemption, hitting small Chinese parcels with up to 145% in new taxes.

Major retailers like Shein and Temu are scaling back U.S. operations, while others like Space NK are exiting the US market entirely.

➡️ Read more

🧸 Trump: “Two Dolls Instead of 30”
Cultural Lens: Power Distance

In response to rising prices, President Trump told Americans their kids might just “have two dolls instead of 30.”

The remark has drawn sharp criticism for trivializing consumer stress and downplaying the real cost burdens that tariffs are placing on working families.

➡️ Read more

Why This Matters

Trump’s actions do not have an underlying plan, strategy, or coherent policy. Rather,
it’s an uninformed and incomplete idea put into action. It’s a lack of understanding of how basic economics works.

These are not one-off glitches.
They are part of a pattern: cut corners, hit headlines, and leave others to deal with the consequences.

Economies can’t grow on fear and fiction, they need predictability, collaboration, and long-term planning. And Trump will have none of that.

Understanding — Not Judging

Trump may not be purposefully crippling the US economy. He may not understand how economics works, he may be too meek to seek advice, and too insecure to change course, even when it’s clear his way is not working. He may have a mental illness or age-related dementia. We don’t know, and it’s not our place to judge.

It is our place to elect competent leaders, including the President and Congress. This is where the American people did not do their job, and now they will suffer for it.

Book Recommendation: Coal: A Human History by Barbara Freese

Barbara Freese’s Coal shows how empires rise and fall by extracting more than they can sustain.

Coal once powered prosperity—until it poisoned people, collapsed economies, and triggered uprisings from those forced to pay the price.

Trump’s economy runs on a similar fuel: political combustion.
Tariffs are his coal, initially driving power, but ultimately polluting every part of the system that once kept it running.