How Trump Let $1 Trillion Worth of Imports Escape His Tariffs

July 31, 2025, 9:00 PM UTC

Ever since President Donald Trump stepped into the White House Rose Garden to announce the largest US tariffs on imported goods in modern history, he and his top economic advisers have repeatedly said that no company, big or small, would be spared.

Holding up a poster board detailing punitive duties on goods from dozens of countries, from China to Lesotho, Trump said any economic pain caused by his tariffs was necessary to spark an industrial revival and “make America wealthy again.”

US President Donald Trump holds a reciprocal tariffs poster during a tariff announcement in the Rose Garden, on April 2.
Photographer: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg

“To any company that objects to our common sense reciprocal tariffs,” Trump warned, “if you want your tariff ...

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