As the world reels from the impact of Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, a video mocking his plan by comedian Dave Chappelle has resurfaced.
The president sent stock markets plummeting when he announced the stiff levies, with even his close advisor Elon Musk openly questioning the policy.
But the world’s richest man is by far the first to question the logic of Trump going to economic war with the world.
Dave Chappelle was prophetic.
— nisten🇨🇦e/acc (@nisten) April 3, 2025
Tariff war explained in 43seconds pic.twitter.com/7mpRB229Bl
“High people ideas,” is how Trump’s policies are described in a viral clip of Chappelle from 2017, which is being shared online after the White House broke decades of international trade convention.
“Like, he doesn’t think these things through before he tells us. He just tells us what he’s thinking as soon as it occurs to him,” Chappelle says in the clip.
“That s*** sounds nuts, ‘I’m gonna go to China and I’m gonna get those jobs from China and bring them back here to America’. For what? So iPhones can be $9,000?”
“Leave that job in China where it belongs. None of us want to work that hard," he joked, adding: "I want to wear Nikes — I don't want to make them.”
China is at the centre of the trade war with the U.S., after 104 per cent tariffs came into force on Wednesday, with Beijing and Washington both vowing not to back down.
The Chinese embassy has since posted a video of former US president Ronald Reagan, famed for his commitment to free market economics, addressing the impact of tariffs.
the Chinese Communist Party posting Reagan speeches about the importance of free trade…what a time to be alive https://t.co/lS2Xk5zshC
— Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma) April 7, 2025
Democrat campaigner Armand Domalewski shared the video with the caption: “The Chinese Communist Party posting Reagan speeches about the importance of free trade…what a time to be alive.”
In the video, Reagan says that when a country decides to impose a tariff on foreign imports it “looks like they’re doing a patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs”.
But he goes on to argue that it leads to less innovation and competition, as industries seek for government protections in the form of high tariffs.
The “fierce trade wars” result in “more and more tariffs”, Reagan adds in the video.
Elon Musk, who heads the Department for Government Efficiency,and has overseen a huge cost-cutting drive within government, has also been vocal in his opposition to the tariffs.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 7, 2025
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO shared a video of Milton Friedman, one of the leading figures of free-market capitalism, in which he explains that no single person could make a single pencil by themselves.
Products are best produced through global cooperation and specialization, he argues. Musk likely sought to argue that products are best built with components from around the world, which are mass produced for cheap and then sold worldwide.
