The Tell Isn’t the Tariff — It’s Who Cheats It

Every government pretending tariffs “don’t work” exposes the truth by trying to cheat them. Enough!

If tariffs were irrelevant, no one would spend billions rerouting supply chains, falsifying certificates of origin, or laundering exports through third countries.

The cheating is the tell.

It’s proof that tariffs bite harder than any interest-rate move.

And look who’s still open: every central bank, every foreign ministry, every exporter running invoices through proxies.

The only thing that ever “shuts down” in America is its government — the one institution defined by a trade deficit that can’t finance a fiscal deficit.

Meanwhile, the Fed keeps operating, markets stay liquid, and the rest of the world keeps collecting the subsidy that U.S. consumption provides.

We’re literally funding our own opposition for the privilege of buying a cheaper toaster at Walmart.

Tariffs are the right domino.

Play it — and play it hard.

Because the louder the world cries foul, the more obvious it becomes that the leverage has always been ours.