YouTube megastar MrBeast attacked President Donald Trump’s new tariffs, claiming they are impacting his line of “Feastables” chocolate bars and claims they “could really be a nail in the coffin” for small businesses.
“Ironically because of all the new tariffs it is now way cheaper to make our chocolate bars we sell globally NOT in America because other countries don’t have a 20%+ tariff on our cogs,” MrBeast — known off YouTube as Jimmy Donaldson — wrote in a Tuesday X post.
“[By the way], we pay our farmers a living income, use fair trade certified beans, etc. so I was already spending a lot on cocoa. A random price hike was pretty brutal [not gonna lie],” MrBeast continued in a follow-up X post.
“We’ll figure it out. I feel for small businesses though. Could really be a nail in the coffin for them,” the YouTube personality, who boasts 383 million subscribers on the Google-owned platform, added.
Commenters were quick to point out the flaws in MrBeast’s arguments.
Last week, President Trump declared that foreign trade and economic practices have created a national emergency, and introduced tariffs “to strengthen the international economic position of the United States and protect American workers,” the White House announced.
Not everyone, however, agrees with MrBeast’s assessment of the president’s tariff proposals.
As Breitbart News reported, the U.S. seafood harvesters have praised tariffs introduced by Trump, saying the president “threw us a lifeline” in the country’s struggling domestic shrimp industry.
“The U.S. domestic shrimp industry has been on a downward trajectory for decades now as a direct result of the unfair trade in the overseas aquaculture industry for growing shrimp overseas,” Bosarge Boats COO Leann Borsarge told Fox Business on Friday.
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said China will be hit with 104 percent in tariffs, set to go into effect at midnight. This comes after President Xi Jinping refused to withdraw retaliatory tariffs placed on the United States.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
