Man Proudly Declares Foreign Governments Pay U.S. Tariffs

“We taxed the Chinese by charging ourselves more. Checkmate.”

UNITED STATES — In a triumphant X (formerly Twitter) thread that somehow managed to be both smug and economically illiterate, one proud American declared that tariffs are “paid by other nations,” and therefore cost U.S. taxpayers absolutely nothing.

“Tariffs are taxes on foreign countries,” said the man, confidently misunderstanding the entire mechanism of international trade. “When you buy an imported product, the Chinese government is the one who forks over the extra cash. It’s called capitalism, dude.”

According to sources, this economic revelation came in response to data showing the U.S. government collected $27.2 billion in tariff revenue in a single month—revenue generated from taxes on imported goods… paid by American companies… passed directly to American consumers… via higher prices.

But this didn’t deter the man, who insisted that because the money entered the U.S. Treasury, it must’ve come from a confused Belgian bureaucrat writing a check.

To clarify the misunderstanding, we spoke with an actual economist.

“Tariffs are literally taxes levied on importers,” she said, trying not to laugh. “Those importers are based in the U.S. They raise prices to cover the cost. Consumers—also in the U.S.—pay more. It’s not exactly a hidden process.”

We reached back out to the man with this explanation, and he responded with a gif of George Washington riding a bald eagle and a caption that read, “America Wins Again.”

Meanwhile, economists warn that rising tariffs inflate consumer prices, hurt domestic manufacturers reliant on foreign inputs, and often provoke retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports.

As proof that tariffs don’t exactly launch an economic golden age, June’s much-hyped “better than expected” jobs report showed 147,000 new positions—but over 70,000 of those were government jobs. Manufacturing? It actually lost jobs. You know, the very sector tariffs are supposed to protect.

Economists also noted that “saving American industry” by taxing the inputs it needs to operate might not be the stroke of genius X thinks it is. But once again, nuance is no match for nationalism in all caps.

“We’re taxing them by taxing us, and that’s good,” the man concluded. “Because it feels strong.”