How tariffs will make the rich richer (and how AI will help them do so)

Donald Trump is back on his bullshit. The latest track on his greatest hits album—“Tariffs! Tariffs! Tariffs!”—is another anthem of economic cosplay, pretending to protect the American worker while quietly enriching his donor class.

By slapping tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada, Trump claims he’s shielding American jobs. What he’s actually doing is pumping inflation back into the veins of working families. These aren’t policies — they’re stealth taxes, engineered to look patriotic while gutting the checkout line at Walmart. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is already trimming its 2025 growth forecasts, citing tariff-driven inflation as a key headwind. The result? Consumers pay more. Small businesses eat margin. And the people who actually win are the ones who always do — corporations with capital and code.

Because now, big business’s don’t just offshore factories. They deploy AI-powered supply chains that reroute around tariffs in milliseconds. A tariff hits? They run a simulation. Find a cheaper path. Execute. While the Midwest farmer and Tampa small biz owner wait for relief, Amazon and Apple have already rebalanced.

So here we are again: Trump cranks up the populist noise, Beijing aims retaliation straight at his base, and Big Tech quietly codes around the chaos. The rich get richer. The poor pay more. And Trump’s buddies cash in — algorithmically.

“America first” is a cost, not a strategy

When Trump slaps tariffs on Chinese imports, he’s not putting pressure on Beijing — he’s lighting US consumer wallets on fire. Want to buy a washing machine? That’ll cost you more. Need new brakes for your Ford? Get ready for the markup. Because tariffs, in practice, are just taxes passed down the supply chain until they land in your Amazon cart.

They’re economically illiterate and politically brilliant. That’s Trumpism: talk tough, create chaos, and let someone else clean up the mess.

But here’s the thing: the mess isn’t shared equally.

The big companies bring in their cleaning crew

When tariffs roll in, small businesses cut hours. Big businesses call Boston Consulting Group.

Multinationals have spent the last five years preparing for this moment. Trump’s first term taught them to expect volatility. They didn’t waste time. They invested in flexibility. They built networks, not chains. Nodes, not lines.

Now, when Trump tweets, they re-optimise.

Apple reroutes production from Zhengzhou to Chennai. Walmart works with alternative suppliers in Vietnam. Nike adds felt to the sole of a sneaker and calls it a slipper to dodge import classifications. This sleight of hand slashes import tariffs from a hefty 37.5% for regular sneakers to a mere 3% for slippers. It’s called tariff engineering. It’s not illegal. It’s just another game only rich companies are equipped to play.

AI supply chain simulation: the new strategy playground

But this time, there’s a new cheat code: artificial intelligence.

While mom-and-pop manufacturers scramble to renegotiate contracts, Amazon runs 100,000 simulations per hour to test alternate sourcing strategies, shipping lanes, and fulfilment flows. AI ingests everything: oil prices, droughts in the Panama Canal, election outcomes in Taiwan and, of course, tariffs. It models them all.

This is not supply chain management. This is supply chain war gaming. And the side with the best AI wins.

Companies are using AI to predict consumer demand and adjust manufacturing volumes in real time. They are integrating AI with procurement, inventory, and logistics systems. Disruptions — once existential — are now just data points in a simulation. That’s the new edge. And only the firms with capital, data, and technical talent can access it.

Red states, red targets

Let’s be clear: this isn’t economic strategy. It’s performative warfare only to dictate headlines. And the other side has learned the script.

In the latest run of Trump slapping tariffs on China, Beijing doesn’t retaliate with ideology — they retaliate with intelligence. Not just trade barriers, but strategic strikes on the states that turned red on Election Night. China’s retaliatory tariffs are precision-guided missiles aimed straight at Trump’s base. By slapping 15% tariffs on American agricultural staples like soybeans, pork, and corn, Beijing is turning the economic screws on the very voters that hold the MAGA flags high.

They don’t just hurt America. They hurt Trump’s America.

Code is the new capital

And while Beijing sharpens its countermeasures for round two, Fortune 500 companies aren’t waiting to get hit. They’re already in the war room — not with generals, but with GPUs.

AI has changed the game. This isn’t just about offshoring anymore. It’s about instantaneous adaptation. A container stuck in port in Guangzhou? The model reroutes through Ho Chi Minh. A commodity price spikes in Shandong? The system triggers a hedging protocol and rewrites the playbook before lunch.

Amazon, Apple, and Nike aren’t terrified of tariffs. They’re training their AI to anticipate them.

Because this is the future of economic warfare: geopolitics fought in code, supply chains weaponised by algorithms, and resilience sold to the highest bidder. Tariffs are no longer a surprise. They’re a scenario — already simulated, optimised, and monetised.

Trump’s policies don’t cripple big business. They code for it.

And as rural America braces for another round of Chinese retaliation, don’t expect the firms in New York or Menlo Park to flinch. They’ve already moved on. Their AI told them this was coming.

And it’s the same story again: China punishes Trump’s voters, AI protects his donors.

That’s not protectionism. That’s profit, dressed up in populism.