The One Thing the Trump Administration and Vampires Have in Common?
They're Scared of the Same Thing [3 min read]
[note: I’m going LIVE today at 2:00 pm EDT with , Chief Political Analyst at ’s Substack “The Liberal Patriot”—come hang out with us via the Worth Knowing website or YouTube]
I was online buying tickets for an upcoming US men's national soccer team game (being a fan this team is the kind of habit that’s clearly bad for you but hard to quit, like biting your fingernails or sniffing glue) when I got a pop-up announcing that I was about to see “all-in prices.”
That was excellent, because I:
then scored the tickets
got to see how much I’d actually be paying, in advance, with none of that ticket website BS where they double the cost on your final click
thought “wow, the political system actually worked”
That last part is, delightfully, true: the price clarity came from political action. After an infamous Ticketmaster meltdown in 2022 for Swifties trying to get Eras Tour tickets, Republicans and Democrats joined forces to put pressure on all of the major ticket websites to inject more transparency. Within months, several major companies announced that they were going to start “all-in pricing” so people could see, before buying, the total cost and where it came from.
It turns out that people like to know exactly what they’re paying when they make a purchase, and why, so Donald Trump quickly jumped on this ultra popular bandwagon—he even signed an Executive Order on price transparency. He agreed passionately about the need for transparency, that is, until the issue was the outrageous, hidden prices that HE was causing. Apparently that information is a state secret that you need classified clearance or a Pete Hegseth Signal chat invitation to know about.
Because when Amazon decided to list exactly how much Trump’s tariffs were adding to the price of their products, the White House practically declared them to be enemy combatants. Jeff Bezos promptly dissolved into a bald puddle and Amazon backed down. But some other companies decided that it’s worth risking a DEFCON 1 level Trump freakout to avoid being blamed by their customers. As The Atlantic reported:
Screenshots of the checkout page of the online clothing company Triangl went viral for the astronomical “duties” surcharge. Temu, a Chinese e-commerce giant, added import charges to certain products on its site. Luxury brands aren’t immune, either: Hermès announced price increases for American buyers to offset the tariffs, and Prada plans to raise prices by an undetermined amount later in the summer. Meanwhile, some business leaders aren’t mincing words. Jolie Skin Co, an American shower-filter brand, told The Information that a “Trump liberation tariff” line will be added to checkout pages. “Technically WE are not raising our prices,” the company’s CEO and founder, Ryan Babenzien, wrote on LinkedIn. “We think transparency is the way to go here and I am giving Trump full credit for his decision.”
Yesterday, Trump has announced a temporary detente in his trade war with China. But don’t let him muddy the waters too much: not only is this only a 90 day pause in the astronomical 145% tariff he originally imposed, but the rest of his global tariffs are still in force, per this graphic from the New York Times:
So, the costs and confusion—the ever-shifting taxes, exemptions, deal frameworks, and dodges—are going to continue for months and months. Which means there’s still a lot of pain in the pipeline for Americans. And the very last thing Donald Trump wants is for you to know is exactly how much, and exactly who is to blame. Sunlight is his enemy.
Very astute, Matt. Indoors is almost the same as nighttime, because it's lit with artificial light.