Summary

Trump’s new tariffs, including a 10% baseline on all imports and sharply higher rates on select countries, appear based on a simplistic formula: divide the U.S. trade deficit by total imports from a country, then halve the result.

Economists like James Surowiecki call the method “extraordinary nonsense,” yet major AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, suggest similar calculations when asked how to fix trade deficits.

Though the White House denies using AI, the overlap raised alarms.

Markets tumbled, and global observers await the tariffs’ implementation on April 5.