🧱 Tariffs, Truth, and Total Nonsense: What the Media Won’t Tell You

How a giant Costco sheet cake, a bake sale, and $22 billion explain modern trade policy.

The legacy media has been spinning the same tired story for years:
“Tariffs are bad.”
“They raise prices.”
“They’re just a tax on YOU.”

But here at AIM4WILL, we don’t just parrot headlines — we dig into the reports, crunch the numbers, and break it all down for everyday people. Let’s clear up the confusion (and maybe laugh a little too).

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🎯 What Even Is a Tariff?

A tariff is basically a toll booth on the border.

If a foreign company wants to sell something in the U.S., they pay a fee — kind of like paying admission to a concert, except instead of Taylor Swift, it's American shoppers.

Bake Sale Analogy:
Imagine you’re at a school bake sale.
One kid’s mom (we’ll call her “China”) shows up with a giant Costco sheet cake.
It’s cheap and huge and undercuts the homemade brownies.
So the teacher (aka Uncle Sam) says,
“You can sell your cake here, but it’s $5 per slice — that money goes to support our school.”

That $5? That’s a tariff. It helps keep things fair — and funds the next bake sale.

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💰 “Tariffs Are Just Taxes on Americans!” … Or Are They?

That’s the line from the usual suspects on TV and Twitter. But according to a new report from the White House’s own Council of Economic Advisers, it turns out… they’re wrong.

📉 From Dec 2024 to May 2025:

• Imported goods prices fell 0.1%

• Consumer prices on those goods dropped 0.8%

Wait — prices went down?!
Yup. And here’s how…

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🛒 The Real Reason Prices Didn’t Rise

When foreign sellers face a tariff, they have 3 options:

1. Raise their prices and risk losing sales

2. Lower their profit margin and absorb the tariff

3. Make a cheaper version of the product

And it turns out, many companies — especially from China — are choosing #2. They’re eating the tariff cost to stay competitive in the U.S. market.

So no, you’re not paying the tariff — they are.

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📈 Meanwhile… The U.S. Is Raking in Revenue

In May alone, the U.S. collected $22.2 billion in tariffs — an all-time record.

This isn’t a trickle. It’s a tidal wave of funding that:

• Supports U.S. manufacturing

• Reduces reliance on hostile economies

• Doesn’t raise income taxes

Imagine telling your accountant:
"Hey, I made more money and kept my costs the same."
And they reply: “Sounds terrible.”

That’s the level of logic we’re dealing with in the mainstream press.

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🧐 Just So You Know We’re Not Making This Up...

Look — we love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next person. But this isn’t one. The numbers are real. The data is real. And no, we didn’t cook the books in a backroom with a tinfoil hat and a MAGA calculator.

Here’s what actual economists and official reports are saying:

✅ CEA Report (2025):
Prices of imported goods dropped 0.1% since the tariff expansion. Not skyrocketed. Dropped.

✅ PCE Index:
Domestic goods prices rose slightly — but not because of imports.
That’s like blaming the salad for what the cheesecake did.

✅ CPI Data:
Imported consumer goods got cheaper by 0.8%. That’s right — cheaper. During a supposed “tariffpocalypse.”

✅ Tariff Revenue:
We pulled in $22 billion in May. That’s not loose change. That’s “fund-a-small-country” money — without raising income taxes.

✅ Market Reaction:
Stocks rallied. Inflation expectations fell. The economy looked at the tariffs and said:
“Cool story, bro. Now watch me hit all-time highs.”

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😬 But Wait… Is There Another Side?

Yep. We’re not like the legacy media — we actually look at both sides of the story.

And to be fair, there is an alternate theory out there. It’s the economic equivalent of your uncle who still says, “Back in my day, tariffs ruined everything.”

This theory isn’t baseless. In fact, it was the dominant opinion in econ textbooks, trade panels, and CNN greenrooms for decades.

Let’s break it down.

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📉 The Alternate Theory: Tariffs = Higher Prices, Lower Jobs

It goes something like this:

• Tariffs raise costs on imported stuff.

• American companies either pay more or stop buying foreign parts.

• Those costs get passed on to you (the consumer) like a hot potato.

• Global supply chains get tangled.

• Other countries retaliate (hello, soybean farmers).

• And everyone ends up crying into their overpriced, tariff-laden avocados.

It sounds grim — and back in 2018–2020, it kind of was.

📌 In fact:

• Some studies found tariffs increased prices on washing machines, steel, and other products.

• U.S. farmers got clobbered when China slapped tariffs back — especially on soybeans and pork.

• Small manufacturers screamed louder than a toddler who dropped his juice box: “Our input costs are up!”

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🕵️ So Was That Theory Wrong?

Not exactly. It was probably right at the time — but times change.

Those early Trump tariffs?
They were like learning to grill: a few burnt hot dogs, maybe a grease fire. 🔥

But the current approach?
It’s more like a seasoned pitmaster who knows how to balance heat and flavor — and doesn’t char the brisket.

Fast forward to 2024–2025, and the data says:

• Imported goods prices? Down

• Inflation? Flat or falling

• Tariff revenue? Through the roof

• Foreign companies? Absorbing the costs

• U.S. consumers? Still buying stuff — cheaper

In other words:

That alternate theory had a good run, but it’s now like Blockbuster — a relic of the past.

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🎯 So What’s the Real Lesson?

It’s not that tariffs are always perfect or always terrible. It’s that:

✔️ When used strategically, they can work.
❌ When used like a blunt hammer, they backfire.

Right now, we’re seeing targeted tariffs, strong negotiating leverage, and real benefits for American consumers and industries.

Even some former critics are coming around, like economists saying, “Okay, maybe Trump outsmarted us… just a little.” (Their words, not ours.)

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💡 Final Word from AIM4WILL

We looked at both sides. We read the nerdy papers. We listened to the angry panel discussions on C-SPAN so you didn’t have to.

Bottom line?

• The old theory: Tariffs = doom.

• The new reality: Tariffs ≠ inflation. In fact, they’re kinda helping.

So next time someone tells you tariffs are killing the economy, send them this article — or just tell them, politely,

“That sounds like 2019 thinking. We’re in 2025 now. Welcome.”

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📚 Footnotes & Sources

1. Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), July 2025 – “Imported Goods Have Been Getting Cheaper Relative to Domestically Produced Goods”
   → Found imported goods fell 0.1% in price post-tariffs, debunking inflation fears.
   Link ›

2. Consumer Price Index (CPI) & PCE Data (Q1–Q2 2025)
   → CPI: Imported goods down 0.8%.
   → PCE: Core goods prices flat, with no link to tariff inflation.

3. U.S. Treasury, Customs Revenue Data – May 2025
   → $22.2B in one month from tariffs alone — historic high.
   Source via Axios ›

4. NBER, PIIE & CBO (2018–2020)
   → Older studies showed tariffs raised costs on steel, washing machines;
   → Estimated $1,200/year cost per U.S. household;
   → Retaliatory tariffs hit U.S. farmers and small manufacturers hard.

5. Torsten Sløk, Apollo Global Management – June 2025
   → Former critic, now supports tariffs as a revenue tool over tax hikes.
   NY Post article ›

6. Federal Reserve Meeting Minutes – June 2025
   → Fed officials warned tariffs may cause “persistent inflation”, though data has yet to support that.
   FT coverage ›

7. Bloomberg, AP, MarketWatch – Summer 2025
   → Despite tariff noise, stock markets hit record highs;
   → Trade deals & earnings outweighed inflation fears.

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