Did Trump get ChatGPT to do his homework?
Trump’s bold new tariffs are raising eyebrows (and laughs), with rumours that ChatGPT might’ve inspired the math behind them.
President Donald Trump announced a bold new set of tariffs on nearly every country under the sun (and even a few places where the sun doesn’t shine much).
This move has economists, X users, and possibly even penguins scratching their heads in confusion.
On Wednesday, April 2, Trump revealed his tariff plans, slapping a minimum 10% fee on foreign imports, and, just for good measure, adding customised charges for select countries.
Vietnam, for example, woke up to find itself hit with a spicy 46% tariff.
Meanwhile, places like the Heard and McDonald Islands (home only to penguins and bad Wi-Fi) weren’t spared either.
Yes, even the birds got billed.
While the world tried to make sense of this economic Sudoku puzzle, one brave internet sleuth may have cracked the code – and the code might just have been written by ChatGPT.
Financial writer James Surowiecki took to X to share a theory. “They didn’t actually calculate tariff rates like they said. They just divided the trade deficit with each country by that country’s exports to the US.”
Let’s say the US has a $17.9 billion (about R326.5 billion) trade deficit with Indonesia, and it imports $28 billion worth of goods from Indonesia. Divide the two and voilà – the deficit makes up 64% of total imports.
Apparently, that’s now a tariff. Who needs spreadsheets when you’ve got vibes?
But the real twist? People think this wasn’t just some quick math. It may have been AI-assisted nonsense.
A now-viral tweet showed a ChatGPT exchange where someone asked: “What’s an easy way to calculate tariffs that make the US look like it’s winning?
ChatGPT, ever the helpful assistant, replied with something like, “Well, you could divide the trade deficit by imports and slap a minimum 10% on everything. That’ll balance things out… kinda.”
And just like that, a digital assistant might’ve accidentally become the Secretary of Commerce.
I think they asked ChatGPT to calculate the tariffs from other countries, which is why the tariffs make absolutely no fucking sense.
— Destiny | Steven Bonnell II (@TheOmniLiberal) April 2, 2025
They're simply dividing the trade deficit we have with a country with our imports from that country, or using 10%, whichever is greater. https://t.co/Rc45V7qxHl pic.twitter.com/SUu2syKbHS
To be fair, though, the US does have a hefty trade deficit, with China, Mexico, and Vietnam leading the pack.
So yes, those countries were hit the hardest.
Whether this strategy will actually “level the playing field” or just confuse the heck out of everyone remains to be seen.
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