Amid the administration’s grotesquerie of self-enrichment, Trump has spent his second term adjusting trade policy in bespoke ways that just so happen to reward political allies and donors. The president had also reportedly considered tariff exemptions for tech giants – after Google, Amazon and Microsoft funneled cash into Trump’s White House ballroom project. That’s why the legal conflict over Trump’s tariffs has largely been left to smaller companies too under-resourced to try to buy their way into the palace and participate in Trump’s “kiss-the-ring” process. And those old laws at least somewhat impede the brazen preferencing of tariff exemptions for campaign donors. In his second term, Trump has aimed to vastly expand and institutionalize his bend-the-knee trade policy.

Source: The Guardian February 27, 2026 21:01 UTC