As you can imagine, since “Liberation Day" on April 2nd, when Donald Trump announced his controversial global tariffs, there have been a great number of memes doing the rounds.
You can drive yourself mad listening to the podcasts and potential scenarios if you need to deep-dive into the abyss, but sometimes it’s best just to wallow in the absurdity of this chaotic situation, and let the social media narrative unfold.
Flapping through foreign policy
Penguins have been all the rage since the tariffs were announced last week. Representing inhabitants of places far and yonder, these innocent Arctic island dwellers embody the far-flung targets that Trump has taken aim at.
The pick of the bunch include a penguin parched on the guests chair in the Whitehouse, where Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was sat and humiliated in February.
Ironically, in this meme, President Trump and his Vice JD Vance appear to be flapping their arms much more than the lovable bird.
undefined News Eye (@newseye.bsky.social) April 3, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Then, there’s lawyer Eddie Lloyd, who shared a medley of penguin parodies including a fake breaking news headline depicting mass protests in remote islands.
The collection also includes the penguins threatening to flood the US market with the dangerous substance of fentanyl, and a penguin donning the infamous red baseball cap Trump once sported – but this time with “Make America go away.” Impressive.
Outstanding memes capturing the absurdity of Trump’s tariff on penguin inhabited Heard & McDonald Islands #owngoal #PowerToThePenguins pic.twitter.com/AETymaLFdC
undefined Eddie Lloyd (@worldzonfire) April 4, 2025
In terms of TikTok videos, there are a couple of well-timed gems. Firstly and somewhat controversially, a potentially Chinese meme – though the creator is unknown – shows Americans doing white-collar labour, like sewing together cheap bras, or screwing together iPhones to represent the visionary “Made in America” tag that Trump is promoting.
To make the post feel even more dystopian, is the juxtaposition of ancient Chinese music to brilliantly invert the issue at heart.
@axiang67 Make america great again～#tariff #america ♬ 原创音乐 - Ben Lau
More whimsically, is the Mary-Poppins-esque montage of “just a spoonful of tariffs makes the stick market go down.”
This short was compiled by the official channel of the popular US talk-show host Jimmy Fallon, whose account has almost 24 million followers, and, in my opinion, is the pick of the bunch.
@fallontonight 🎵 Just a spoonful of tariffs makes the stock market go down 🎵 #FallonTonight #TonightShow #Trump ♬ original sound - FallonTonight
In another quirky meme, popular Democrat, and former mayor of Nashville, Tennessee, Jon Cooper shared on his X account shared a fantasy-inspired list of tariff hit destinations from the land-of-make-believe. Included in the list are Narnia, Middle-earth, and Hogwarts, as well as a range of planets.
These Trump tariffs are getting out of hand. #TrumpTariffs pic.twitter.com/DXtA7rcXCo
undefined Jon Cooper 🇺🇸 (@joncoopertweets) April 3, 2025
A varied wrap on offer, and when you’ve had a painful time trying to make head or tail of the situation – sometimes memeification is way less taxing than reality.
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