Remember when Trump swaggered around claiming trade wars were easy to win? Well, grab your binoculars and stare at the Pacific Ocean, where precisely zero ships are currently sailing from China to California's biggest ports.
As reported in CNN, the San Pedro Bay Complex is looking about as busy as a vegetarian steakhouse. We're talking a 35-40% cargo drop at Long Beach and 31% at Los Angeles. The last time it was this dead, we were all hiding from COVID and discovering that baking sourdough wasn't as easy as we'd thought.
Trumpanzee slapped Chinese imports with a 145% tariff, because apparently he thought international trade works like a casino bankruptcy – something he knows all about.
Now port officials are watching their monitoring screens like ghosted lovers checking their text messages. "That's cause for alarm," says Long Beach Port CEO Mario Cordero.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent might generously lower tariffs to 80%, which is sort of like offering to punch someone in the face slightly softer.
Sweet empty-shelf summer is coming, America.
Previously:
• China cancels massive US pork order, thanks to Trump's tariffs
• China imposes export restrictions the rare earths we need for everything
