Tariffs on bananas and coffee as if the farmers are suddenly going to start growing them here. There are some coffee beans grown in Hawaii though!
And there’s a lot of people who are playing different sides on which tariffs they want higher and on whom. So JD Vance last week was on television. People keep asking about dolls because lots of toys are made in China. Toys are like one of China’s least important exports in a grand scheme of things. Like, it’s much worse for the U.S. economy to lose batteries, which are made in China. But people understand we don’t want toys to go up in price.
And they asked JD Vance, like, “what are you going to tell a mother who can’t get toys because tariffs on China are 145%?” And they’re like, “oh, we’re going to tell her that we need to like build out an industry in case we need to defend ourselves in a war,” as if doll production is what is really good for military combat.
Ash Marwah is a resident of the Village of Belvedere.