U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 2, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
When President Donald Trump announced his "Liberation Day" imposition of "reciprocal tariffs" of 10 to 49 percent on essentially every foreign import in the world, market futures reacted by going into freefall. But Trump also triggered widespread mockery over his extensive list of countries and regions subject to the new tariffs — which included a bunch of obscure, small and remote islands with negligible trade with the United States, and in at least one case, a set of islands with no population at all.
"Taking on America's real enemies — a bunch of islands you've never heard of," wrote Brendan Duke of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on X.
Among the areas Trump singled out for tariffs are Réunion Island, a French overseas territory in the Indian Ocean, and Norfolk Island, a tiny Australian holding in the South Pacific with a population of just over 2,000 people.
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"Blimey. What have Reunion and Norfolk Island done to annoy the Mango Mussolini? #TrumpTariffs," posted Anthony Vickers, a former writer for the British publication Gazette Boro.
Also hit for tariffs is Svalbard, a desolate Norwegian archipelago near the North Pole — though, as some commenters noted, Trump oddly decided to put only a 10 percent tariff on Svalbard, while putting a 15 percent tariff on Norway itself.
"Excuse me, Svalbard?" wrote The Economist editor Shashank Joshi.
"I'm gonna start a business that routes Norwegian goods through Svalbard and Jan Mayen in order to get a five percent discount," wrote Alan Cole of the conservative Tax Foundation. "Who's in? We're gonna see so many polar bears!"
But one of the oddest inclusions might be a 10 percent tariff on goods from Heard Island and McDonald Islands — a barren, desolate group of volcanoes off the coast of Antarctica, with a population of zero and no human settlements of any kind, let alone industry or exports.
"We put tariffs on Heard Island and McDonald Island, and no one lives there lmao," wrote New York transit activist Hayden Clarkin.