The Worst Thing Trump Did on 5/17/25

As Trump and his Administration act like they have pulled back on the tariffs, the reality is that there are a lot of tariffs still in place on most of the goods coming into the United States. There is a 10% universal tariff, a 25% tariff on cars and auto parts (with some exceptions), a 30% tariff on Chinese imports (with a few exceptions), and a 25% tariff on all goods from Canada and Mexico not covered by USMCA.  All of those tariffs are currently in effect and costing Americans more.

Trump has now gone after Walmart, the country's biggest retailer.  Walmart announced this week that customers should expect prices to go up because the Trump Administration is making them go up.  Trump didn't like that and has ordered Walmart and their executives to eat the extra costs so that their customers don't get mad at him.

And that's the whole point.  Trump, by going after Walmart publicly, knows a majority of his base will blame Walmart for his disastrous economic plan. Trump knows he's hurting Americans with his tariffs, and he knows that Walmart executives will only cover so much extra cost.  There is no way Walmart is going to eat all of these extra costs, so prices will go up in their stores. When that happens, Trump wants to make sure Walmart takes all the heat for it. 

It also should be noted that the same MAGA people who scream at the top of their lungs about the made-up hysteria about Democrats wanting government price regulations on private companies are the ones now ORDERING private companies to absorb the costs of their horrendous tariff debacle, hence government regulating prices of private companies, courtesy of MAGA!