Hello and welcome to No Tacos for Tyrants, the podcast that will never put tariffs on our penguin allies. Flippers up. I'm your host, Matt Nha, and that speaker I played at the beginning there is the Reverend Floyd Tompkins in Marin County, speaking at the local anti-Trump rally last Saturday. I’ll play more of his speech during the Three Good Things segment at the end of the pod, but holy shit—did this guy light it up.

I’m not a Christian, but I’d go to his church just to listen to him as an orator.

Onto business.

We’re diving into tariffs today—that’s the main thing, other than Three Good Things—but first, I just want to briefly cover something that is yet another low for this administration.

Late Wednesday night, Trump signed executive orders targeting two former officials—Miles Taylor and Christopher Krebs—for the crime of criticizing him. He directed the DOJ to investigate them. Taylor was a Homeland Security official, and Krebs oversaw election cybersecurity. Both were political appointees from Trump’s first term.

Trump accused Taylor of treason. No evidence. Just vibes.

Let’s not forget: treason carries the death penalty. Trump said, “I think it’s a very important case and I think he’s guilty of treason, if you want to know the truth.” That’s terrifying. This is the President of the United States issuing executive orders to investigate his own appointees—simply for disagreeing with him.

Will they even be able to find law firms willing to represent them? Trump has a history of targeting anyone he views as opposition. This is banana republic-level behavior. Unfuckinbelievable. Though sadly, not surprising.

But people are paying more attention to the crashing markets and tariffs—and I get it. Tariffs affect everyone. So let’s get into that.

Before I talk about how Trump caved—because he did cave, days after shouting that his policies would “never change”—let’s break down what these tariffs are all about.

Trump’s been obsessed with tariffs since the '80s. Peter Navarro, his economic advisor, was one of the few economists who agreed with him—though Navarro is fringe as hell and way out of step with mainstream economic thought.

Trump and his supporters talk about reciprocal tariffs—tit for tat. Sounds fair, right? Total bullshit.

When the tariff schedules were announced, there was no correlation between what other countries tax us and what we tax them. What did line up almost perfectly? The trade deficit the U.S. has with each country—not including services.

Let me explain: A trade deficit is when Country A buys more from Country B than B buys from A. The U.S. runs trade deficits with many countries because we’re rich. We consume a lot. Poorer countries can’t afford to buy our expensive goods like Teslas. So we import more than we export. That’s normal.

Tariffs don’t fix that. They just make goods more expensive for us.

Let’s look at bananas. Most come from Central America. Why are they cheap? Labor is cheap there. We can’t grow enough bananas in the U.S.—climate, land, you name it. So tariffs just make bananas more expensive for Americans and hurt Central American farmers. They don’t magically make banana farms sprout in Ohio.

Then you’ve got high-end chips. Almost all made by TSMC in Taiwan. They make chips for Nvidia and other top-tier hardware companies. These fabs are incredibly complex and expensive—hundreds of millions of dollars. They use machines made only by ASML in the Netherlands. We can't replicate this easily in the U.S.—not in under a decade, and certainly not cheaply.

You think Americans are gonna tolerate 7–10 years of sky-high chip prices while we build fabs? Doubtful. And why would companies invest billions in fabs here when Trump could just yank the tariffs on a whim? Which, by the way, he just did.

America didn’t “lose” manufacturing. We transitioned to services—because services are more profitable and pay better.

Top U.S. companies? Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, Meta—services. Even Amazon makes most of its money from AWS, its cloud arm. Apple’s an exception, but they still manufacture overseas. Design and IP? That stays here.

Why give that up just because Trump thinks real men build carburetors? MAGA’s answer? “Factory jobs will make people more masculine.” No, really. That’s a thing they say. Dumb as hell.

So why did Trump suddenly pause most tariffs on Wednesday? The bond market.

He’d shouted on Truth Social in all-caps about how his “policies will NEVER change.” Then the S&P 500 dropped 4% Monday. Rumors swirled about a pause. White House said “fake news.” Tuesday: S&P crashes 6%. Wednesday: tariffs kick in. Then, only a few hours later, Trump pauses most tariffs—except for China.

Market rockets up. But Thursday it drops again.

Was it market manipulation? Almost certainly. But will we ever prove it? Probably not. The SEC’s not gonna investigate while Trump’s in power. And filings rarely include exact transaction timing.

But here's the thing: Trump probably isn’t personally deep in the stock market. His wealth is tied up in real estate and his clown crypto coin. So why does he care?

Because the bond market affects everyone—rich and poor.

Let’s break down the bond market.

The U.S. borrows money via Treasury securities: T-Bills (short-term), Notes (2–10 years), and Bonds (20–30 years). You lend the government money; they pay you interest (the "coupon").

Bond prices and interest rates move inversely. Price up = yield down. Price down = yield up.

Normally, in market chaos, people flee to bonds. Demand goes up, prices go up, yields go down.

But this week? Stock market tanked and bond prices dropped. That means yields spiked. Investors demanded higher interest—because they’re losing faith in U.S. stability. That’s a red flag.

Since April 4th, the 10-year yield jumped from 4% to nearly 4.5%. That’s massive. It means borrowing costs are rising—for the government and for all of us. Mortgages, car loans, credit cards—they’re all tied to Treasury yields.

This is how you trigger a recession.

Trump doesn’t want inflation to come roaring back—under his watch. So he panicked, paused tariffs, and hoped that would calm investors. But the damage is done.

The world doesn’t trust us anymore.

Think of it like a rescue dog. You gain its trust slowly. But if you kick it? That trust disappears fast.

Trump paused tariffs for 90 days. That’s like saying, “I won’t kick you until next quarter.” That doesn’t build trust. It erodes it.

How can businesses plan when the guy in charge changes policy on a whim and lies constantly?

Consumers pause spending. Businesses pause hiring. That’s how recessions begin.

Consumer sentiment just dropped 30% since December. It’s now at the second-lowest level since 1952. That’s terrifying.

Recessions can be self-fulfilling. If people believe it’s coming, they spend less—so businesses contract, which means layoffs, which means less spending, and the spiral continues.

And let’s be real: If we do enter a recession, Trump will try to fix it by printing money again, like during COVID. That’ll inflate asset prices and, again, punish the poor while enriching the already wealthy.

What about China?

Trump left a 154% tariff on Chinese goods. China responded in kind. Xi Jinping can’t afford to look weak either. But these tariffs are mutually destructive. I think they’ll work something out—eventually.

But until then, countries like Brazil, India, and Russia are loving it. They’re stepping in to fill the trade vacuum.

Okay, now let’s lighten it up.

One. The Supreme Court delivered a unanimous 9–0 decision ordering Trump’s administration to return Kilma Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father mistakenly deported to a max-security prison in El Salvador. The Trump administration is still refusing to comply—for now—but it’s a rare win and a glimmer of accountability.

Two. A rat named Ronan in Cambodia has sniffed out over 100 landmines and 15 unexploded ordnance pieces. Rats are ideal for this: smart, trainable, great sense of smell, and too light to trigger mines. Ronan is a hero.

Three. The Marin County protests last Saturday were incredible. 7,000 people showed up in a county of 250,000. The crowd skewed older—where were the young folks?—but the energy was real. Rep. Jared Huffman gave a fiery speech and played guitar with a local band. Reverend Floyd Tompkins was electric. I held a sign of Trump in a crown, Hitler mustache, diaper, standing in trash. Dozens of people stopped to take photos. It was beautiful.

To close, I’m leaving you with a clip from Martin Luther King Jr. reminding us that victory is inevitable.

I hope he’s right. But let’s act like we know he’s right.

Courage, Taco Nation. Stay spicy, stay free. See you next time.