The unintended consequences of this seem really wild and monumental. This could transform business and government and it scares the heck out of me.
They will pay it now, and avoid political retribution. They will then wait a year or two, challenge it as unconstitutional and get the money back. Probably wont even take a court case, just a simple letter to whoever is collecting the money and it will be over.
You think this authoritarian fascism thing will blow over, do you
I am learning Mandarin in preparation for the inevitable exodus.
Article I, Section 9, Clause 5
No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.
I see two easy ways to get around this.
1. It's a fee and not a tax.
2. Require the chips to be claimed as shipped from DC or another non-state.
And the more practical way.
3. Just don't ever hear the case challenging it.
You forgot:
4. If the POTUS does it, it's not a crime.
and
5. It's for National Security -- surely you don't want us giving our AI technology away to China without extracting something in return?
There are many ways to handle this -- just watch Faux News, if this ever rises above the threshold of the ambient craziness and becomes "newsworthy".
Initial tariffs on China were billed to be about fentanyl being exported to the US, largely by mail. Put into place just a few days after Trump pardoned the largest opiates by mail operator in world history, Ross Ulbricht.
I didn't know Ross ran USPS.
It is a bit unfortunate how much Trump gets a pass for not solid decision making.