ICYMI, President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he would be enacting sweeping tariffs on dozens of nations. In fact, these Trump tariffs, which immediately plunged international trade into chaos and sent the stock market into a downward spiral, were so all-encompassing that they even apply to an island full of unsuspecting feathered friends.
One of the regoins on Trump’s list, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, is inhabited entirely by penguins. Yes, penguins, and absolutely zero humans.
Here’s the best explanation of what is going on here, in this edition of TL;DR.
Give me the TL;DR.
Donald Trump’s retaliatory tariffs apply to an Australian territory inhabited entirely by penguins, which everyone online would think was hilarious if it wasn’t so confusing.
Wait, I need more. What’s the background here?
On Wednesday, which the president deemed Liberation Day, he announced long-promised tariffs on a large group of foreign countries. The tariffs were bigger than many expected in both number and scope, with a baseline tariff (a.k.a. tax) being imposed on imports from all countries.
The high cost of these tariffs, with countries like Vietnam hit with a nearly 50%, have investors reeling and industries from fashion to tech worried about the impact on consumers. But amid all the chaos, people online began to notice one strange name on the list of places the White House presented to have tariffs imposed: the Heard and McDonald Islands.
These islands, an Arctic territory of Australia, stand out because no humans live on them. Instead, the islands are populated by penguins, seals, and birds like albatrosses. Maybe this should go without saying, but these critters aren’t exporting any goods or services to the US on which they can be taxed the 10% that the chart assigned them.
Here are some more fun facts about the islands, courtesy of UNESCO: They are mostly covered with snow and ice (though Heard Island has a volcano on it called Big Ben) and are cool because they present an environment “essentially undisturbed by humans.” Lovely and beautiful, but yeah, no exports.
According to Axios, the islands were included because they are an Australian territory. Another Arctic island with no permanent human population, Jan Mayen, was also listed alongside Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago that it is grouped with.
What does the internet think?
People online have grasped onto the absurdity of the Trump tariffs being imposed on essentially an island full of penguins because, well, it is truly just that weird.
On TikTok, there was a lot of creative storytelling about how the penguins are reacting.
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And others are using the opportunity to share cute pics of penguins.
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The jokes help because, in face of the truly scary repercussions of the tariffs on the economy and recession fears, it is a distraction to make penguin memes instead.
What should I tell my friends about this?
Just tell them Trump is putting tariffs on penguins, and then do not explain at all.
