TACO, TACO MAN
It’s now nearing fall, and we’ve been living through a nonstop barrage of chaos pouring out of the White House. None of it is surprising—we all saw this coming—but it still burns my eyes every morning with each new headline. The ongoing Epstein scandal, the war in Ukraine, and the genocide in Gaza dominate coverage, but they don’t touch the everyday American in tangible ways (at least not yet). What does? Two massive Trump policy moves that have already landed hard: tariffs and the really shitty bill.
Back in April, Trump trotted out onto the White House lawn — future UFC ring, current taxpayer-funded ego stage — and unveiled a chart so badly formatted it could have short-circuited a casino. It listed a collection of countries and the percentage tariffs they’d face come “Liberation Day” — a term Trump has now used at least twice, though I’m still not sure who was being liberated from what. Regardless, the spectacle was another made-for-TV moment in which Trump claimed a “victory” and left the world stupefied and confused.
The basis — and supposed logic — from Dear Leader: tariffs will bring back manufacturing to the U.S., and the administration will close 90 trade deals in 90 days. Fast forward past that deadline, and here’s where we currently sit: just six substantive deals exist, many without actual implementation frameworks. Trump still claims victory on TV, because he is a fucking moron who can’t grasp that many of these countries are simply buying time.
Now that it’s mid-August I figured I’d serve up a report card based on the so-called "wins" MAGA keeps bragging the Orange Man has delivered. Served–as in I am serving tacos–because I am petty and hate him. For the uninitiated, TACO is a wonderful acronym for Trump Always Chickens Out. Given how this administration operates – like a drunk toddler on bath salts– some of the details below may have shifted. Still, I will die on the hill that Trump has no clue what he is doing and simply wields tariffs as a leverage tool. What he, and apparently his entire administration, fail to realize is that the world is calling his bluff.
The Tariff Scorecard:
Deals promised: 90
Deals delivered: 6
Taco Rating: 🌮🌮🌮🌮 (4/5 tacos = high B.S., with a sprinkle of truth truth)
Recent Trade Announcements & Taco Ratings (as of August 2025)
Media Line: China agrees to $50B in U.S. farm goods purchases over two years.
Actual Detail: No signed binding contract, just a non-binding agreement with opt-out clauses.
Taco Rating: 🌮🌮🌮🌮🌮 (5/5 - this is all bullshit)
Media line: Duty-free access for U.S. steel into UK.
Actual detail: Applies to 40,000 tons annually–less than 0.5% of U.S. production the UK maintains retaliatory tariffs on U.S. bourbon and motorcycles.
Taco Rating: 🌮🌮🌮🌮 (4 / 5 – technically a deal, but the real impact is negligible)
Brazil “Beef Expansion Agreement”
Media line: “Beef exports to Brazil doubled.”
Actual detail: Increase is from 10,000 tons to 20,000 tons — still less than 1% of total U.S. beef output.
Taco Rating: 🌮🌮🌮 3/5 - - technically true, but hollow).
Worth noting: Trump has since announced a 50% tariff on Brazil simply because the country is prosecuting Jair Bolsonaro for staging his own insurrection. As a result, Brazil has begun negotiating with India and China to replace U.S. imports. America First, baby!
Media Line: Strategic technology cooperation with India.
Actual Detail: The Trump administration imposed a 25% reciprocal tariff on Indian goods effective August 7, 2025. On top of that, a second 25% penalty tariff was introduced, bringing the total to a whopping 50%—one of the highest rates ever imposed by the U.S. on a trading partner. (WikipediaIndiatimes). These tariffs are primarily a response to India’s continued import of Russian oil, despite mounting U.S. pressure. (Financial TimesWikipedia). The tariffs take effect on August 27, with exemptions for goods already in transit before that date.
Taco Rating: 🌮🌮🌮🌮 (4 / 5 tacos — technically happening, but framed as partnership while functioning as punishment)
Regardless of the current “deals” announced or delayed, Trump’s entire "strategy" -- if you could even call it that – collapses on itself. Tariffs work best when targeted at specific goods or industries. Trump is using them against entire countries, expecting them to spark permanent manufacturing shifts. Businesses, aware of Trump’s political volatility, have no faith in tariff permanence, and thus no reason to make billion-dollar factory investments.
In practice, Trump’s negotiation style has driven some nations to the table — but it’s also encouraged others to build alliances that sidestep the U.S. entirely. Canada, Mexico, and Brazil are already testing a Latin bloc approach, just to avoid dealing with Trump’s dumb ass. The impact of these trade discussions has slowly been making ripples in everyday consumer’s lives, and is starting to pick up. Over the past few months, many retailers have negated some of the effects having stock piled on inventory prior to April, though those reserves are starting to deplete. With the holiday season around the corner, and inventory needed, we are starting to see prices trend up. While tariffs have been a present factor, the effects of the terrible bill signed in congress will have a much more widespread impact, and potentially damage not only the economy, but our society as a whole over a much longer period of time.
The Really Shitty Bill: A $3 Trillion Disaster in a Flag-Wrapped Box
If tariffs were Trump’s foreign policy con, the OBBB (I refuse to address it by its legal name) is his domestic scam — a bill pitched as an economic booster, deficit reducer, and immigration fixer. In reality, it adds $3.4 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade, hands a massive blank check to ICE, and guts America’s clean energy future. Now, there is A LOT packed into the bill and its effects are far-reaching, but I’ve done my best to summarize here without making you slam your head against the table--at least, not yet.
Immigration Enforcement
ICE’s discretionary budget for FY 2026 stands at $11.3 billion, with another $75 billion coming through reconciliation funding. That money isn’t going toward immigration reform — it’s going toward detention beds, hiring 10,000 new agents, and expanding facilities. Meanwhile, other federal law enforcement agencies face budget cuts. The message is clear: this administration will fund its enforcement arm like a modern-day Gestapo, rather than prioritize deficit reduction.
Along with an enormous budget, ICE and its collaborators have enjoyed virtual immunity from accountability. Every day we see videos of masked agents violating human rights, gleefully bragging about their arrest counts, and then crying on Fox News about being doxxed. "Puppy killer" Noem also recently announced a massive recruitment campaign, incentivizing young, untrained individuals to join ICE and fast-track their careers in violence against their neighbors.
Recent Examples of ICE Brutality:
January 2025, El Paso, TX: ICE agents raided a shelter housing asylum seekers, using tear gas indoors. Seventeen people, including children, were hospitalized. (Source: El Paso Times, Jan. 14, 2025)
May 2025, Bakersfield, CA: A 43-year-old detainee died after being denied insulin for four days while in ICE custody, sparking a DOJ investigation. (Source: Associated Press, May 27, 2025)
These are just two examples of the lawlessness embraced by ICE, and by the President of the United States. And the people who cheer this on?They’re the same ones who bitch about the public school system's lack of resources but don’t bat an eye when it comes to ICE funding. Our teachers have to rely on Amazon lists and GoFundMe for school supplies, while GED Joe gets a Navy Seal load out for his Home Depot raid.
Climate Policy
The bill dismantles much of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act – gutting tax credits for wind, solar, EVs, and battery storage years ahead of schedule. It rescinds unspent clean energy funding, kills programs like the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, and reroutes federal support toward fossil fuel projects. These initiatives were supposed to at least put the U.S on par with China’s renewable energy progress, if not surpass over the next 10 years or so. By removing domestic incentives for American companies, the U.S will surely fall far behind our foreign rival, with jobs and innovation tanking as a result.
The projected fallout:
$500+ billion in lost clean investment
7 billion extra metric tons of CO₂ by 2050
Fossil Fuel Beneficiaries:
ExxonMobil — Receives expanded tax deductions for drilling equipment and direct DOE loan guarantees for Gulf of Mexico deepwater projects. (Source: Reuters, June 2025)
Koch Industries — Wins an exemption from new methane fees and lands a federal contract to supply synthetic fuels to military bases. (Source: Politico, July 2025)
Meanwhile, oil and gas producers get expanded subsidies, repealed methane fees, and preferential access to DOE loans. Fossil fuel corporations — many of whom bankrolled Trump’s campaign — emerge as the bill’s biggest winners.
Taco Rating: 🌮🌮🌮🌮🌮 (5/5 — industrial-grade B.S)
The Common Thread: Promises Without Delivery
Trump’s governing style is consistent: headline first, consequences later. He claims victory on TV, waves a chart or signs a bill, and calls it history — all while the country absorbs the fallout.
The pattern is simple:
Tariffs promised a manufacturing revival and quick-fire trade victories. Instead, they delivered six flimsy deals and no reason for businesses to invest long-term in U.S. production.
The OBBB promised growth, fiscal restraint, and stronger borders. Instead, it ballooned the deficit, handed unchecked power to ICE, and sabotaged America’s clean energy future.
Trump thrives on media coverage rather than actual outcomes, with short-term “wins” designed for TV – not for the economy or the taxpayer. The deals have little, if any, substance, and his legislation is outright destructive – one reason Republicans are scrambling to rig the congressional maps. They know tariffs and the bill's fallout will hurt them at the polls. GOP lawmakers are already getting torched in town halls, and the hardest-hitting effects are still to come.
When you strip away the social media spin and Fox News polish, what's left is an economy that’s less competitive, deeper in debt, and increasingly isolated. All we can do is counter the disingenuous right — online and in person — and force them to choose the lie over facts. As time passes, some people will feel the consequences of Trump’s disastrous policies, but whether that will be enough to break them out of the cult remains to be seen.
-Edited by E. Sullivan
