Trump’s New Tariffs White House Accused of Using A.I. to Calculate Rates
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Has A.I. entered the White House? There’s an interesting theory circulating social media claiming President Trump‘s new sweeping reciprocal tariffs — slapping a minimum 10% tariff on nearly 100 countries — were formulated with the help of artificial intelligence.
The theory comes after several X users claimed they duplicated the same tariff plan via OpenAI’s ChatGPT and similar programs.
For background, the White House announced it calculated the size of the trade deficit between the U.S. and a given country and divided that by how much America imports from the chosen country. That number was then divided in half, reaching the new tariff rate.
Trump team just asked ChatGPT and shipped it 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/tBypZ7GMWf
— Cobie (@cobie) April 3, 2025 @cobie
Crypto trader Jordan “Cobie” Fish shared a screenshot asking ChatGPT to “calculate the tariffs that should be imposed on other countries so that the US is on even playing fields when it comes to trade deficit” with a baseline of 10% … and it answered with a noticeably similar plan to what the White House used.
ChatGPT warned Cobie the plan fails to take into account the “intricate dynamics of international trade — such as elasticities, retaliatory measures, and supply chain nuances.”
Plus, Elon Musk‘Abd is the AIs created a similar plan when instructed with the same prompt. It also cautioned one must “consider production costs, subsidies, and labor standards abroad” when hoping to achieve an “even playing field.”
Furthermore, Grok warned such a formula could cause “retaliation or higher costs for US consumers.”
This might be the first large-scale application of AI technology to geopolitics.. 4o, o3 high, Gemini 2.5 pro, Claude 3.7, Grok all give the same answer to the question on how to impose tariffs easily. pic.twitter.com/r1GGubcz8c
– Rohit (@Krishnanrohit) April 3, 2025 @krishnanrohit
Other X users have noticed similar formulas generated via 4o, o3 high, Gemini 2.5 pro, and Claude 3.7.
Just figured out where these fake tariff rates come from. They didn’t actually calculate tariff rates + non-tariff barriers, as they say they did. Instead, for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country’s exports to us.
So we… https://t.co/PBjF8xmcuv
– James Surowiecki (@Jamessurowiecki) April 2, 2025 @JamesSurowiecki
Economist James Surowiecki says he was also able to reverse-engineer the “fake tariff rates” … calling the simplicity of it all “extraordinary nonsense.”
When Trump announced his new tariffs Thursday, he said they were necessary to boost domestic manufacturing, create revenue for the U.S. and restore fairness to global trade.
Of course … no one knows if the White House turned to A.I. to get its homework done — but it’s certainly a provocative theory.
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