The Penguins Will Be Alright—Turns Out There’s Good Reason We’re Putting Tariffs on Unoccupied Islands

The left has been in permanent freakout mode since Donald Trump announced a new round of tariffs on countries all around the world during his “Liberation Day” ceremony Wednesday. After the stock market tumbled on Thursday and Friday, the headlines at mainstream news outlets all sounded as if the world was going to imminently explode.

One of the main points they’ve been using to mock the president is that the administration is enacting tariffs on remote islands that have no residents. Leftists were quick to pounce:

Donald Trump slapped tariffs on penguins and not on Putin.

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 3, 2025

This just about sums it all up – 10% tariff on Heard and Macdonald Islands which are completely unpopulated. Bit hard on the penguins though to have their guano tariffed https://t.co/qZjEhg6zDN

— Simon Schama (@simon_schama) April 2, 2025

I admit it, when I first saw that news, I was a bit perplexed myself. It turns out that they’re not a boneheaded error, however, and according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, there’s a reason for them. Appearing on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” with Margaret Brennan Sunday, he explained that they purposefully included those areas to close loopholes.

She came out of the gate with her usual disdain for members of the Trump Team:

MARGARET BRENNAN: …the countries themselves seemed kind of random. Like, why are the Heard Island and McDonald Islands, which don’t export to the United States and are quite literally inhabited by penguins, why do they face 10 percent tariffs?

Did you use A.I. to generate this? [Seriously, Margaret? Surely you can hide your bias better than that.]

Lutnick was ready, though, and brought a little reality home:

SECRETARY HOWARD LUTNICK: No. No, the idea – look, the idea is that there are many countries left off.

BRENNAN [growing hysterical]: Why are they on the list?!

LUTNICK: Because the idea – what happens is, if you leave anything off the list, the countries that try to basically arbitrage America go through those countries to us.

Any country – like, we had tariffs – the president put tariffs on China, right, in 2018. And then what China started doing is, they started going through other countries to America…

They just built through other countries through America…

And so the president knows that. He’s tired of it. And he’s going to fix that. So, basically, he said, look, I can’t let any part of the world be a place where China or other countries can ship through them.

Watch:

Of course there’s a good reason why Trump included the penguin islands on his tariff list, and of course the left pretends not to understand. pic.twitter.com/AQmwCIs7c9

— JKash 🍊MAGA Queen (@JKash000) April 6, 2025

“So he ended those loopholes, these ridiculous loopholes,” Lutnick concluded. “And now what he’s trying to say is, I’m going to fix the trade deficit of the United States of America.”

More: Talking Tariffs and Supply Chains: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and NEC Director Kevin Hassett

Watch: Top Trump Official Laughs As Jake Tapper Claims He’s ‘Not on the Left,’ Schools Him on Tariffs

This is good news for the penguins—it appears as if they have nothing to worry about. Permanently outraged journalists like Margaret Brennan will hopefully sleep a little easier tonight.

Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie.  

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