The penguin islands have been slapped with a 10 percent tax hike
An officials has explained the bizarre reason Trump’s tariffs have been applied to Arctic islands which are solely inhabited by penguins.
Last week, Donald Trump unveiled a bold move to “Make America Wealthy Again,” announcing a series of ‘reciprocal tariffs’ targeting around 60 countries globally. In a fiery address, the President claimed that the United States had been “ripped off” on trade for decades. On April 2, dubbed ‘Liberation Day,’ Trump introduced a sweeping 10 percent baseline tariff on most foreign goods entering the U.S., with some countries facing even steeper rates. The European Union will face a 20 percent tariff, China a whopping 54 percent, Japan 24 percent, and Thailand 36 percent, all set to go into effect by April 9.
“For far too long, our country has been looted, pillaged, and plundered by both allies and adversaries alike,” Trump declared. “This is our declaration of economic independence.”
But the President’s new tariffs aren’t just targeting nations—he’s even going after remote islands. In a surprising move, 10 percent tariffs have been imposed on the Heard and McDonald Islands, an isolated Australian territory in the Antarctic, home only to penguins and seals.
The move left many scratching their heads, with critics questioning how taxing penguins would help “liberate” America from foreign reliance. One social media user quipped, “Those penguins have been mooching off the U.S. for long enough. Their reign of terror has come to an end.”
Despite the controversy, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick defended the plan during a Sunday appearance on Face the Nation. Host Margaret Brennan pointed out the seemingly random nature of the tariffs on the penguin-populated islands, which don’t export to the U.S. at all.
Margaret Brennan pressed the Trump official, asking why the remote Heard and McDonald Islands were subjected to 10 percent tariffs, jokingly adding, “Did you use AI to generate this?”
Lutnick chuckled at the suggestion, explaining, “No, it’s not about that. What happens is, if you leave any gap in the list, countries that want to exploit America will use those gaps to ship goods through other countries. For example, when the President imposed tariffs on China in 2018, China started rerouting their goods through other nations to get to the U.S.”
He emphasized that President Trump is fully aware of this loophole and is “tired of it.”
“He’s going to fix that,” Lutnick continued. “The President said, ‘I can’t allow any part of the world to be a conduit for countries like China to exploit us.’ He’s closing those loopholes. What he’s really saying is: ‘I’m going to address America’s trade deficit. This is a national security issue. We need to make our own medicines, semiconductors, ships, steel, and aluminum.'”
Lutnick doubled down on the President’s vision, stating, “Come on, we need America’s greatness to actually be built in America, and he’s tired of being ripped off by the rest of the world.”
But the critics were not swayed. One user tweeted, “[Lutnick] really hit the Sunday circuit like, ‘We had to hit the penguins with tariffs… just in case.’ Sir. Be serious. Nobody’s smuggling microchips through Antarctica. Ain’t no penguin cartel laundering goods through the McDonald Islands.”
Another commenter quipped, “They screwed up and are definitely trying to style it out.” A third person chimed in, “Then I notice Mars is conspicuously absent from the list.”
