From the Guardian, with examples:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/27/trumps-tariffs-economic-policy-corruption

Donald Trump has been able to weaponize tariffs by citing a section of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) that allows a president to “regulate … importation”. As long as tariffs were presumed to be a permissible form of “regulat[ing] … importation” under this law, Trump could assert the power to unilaterally impose whatever tariffs he wanted, at whatever product-by-product levels he chose, and with any exemptions he desired – all without explanation or explicit authorization from Congress.

Amid the administration’s grotesquerie of self-enrichment, Trump has spent his second term adjusting trade policy in bespoke ways that just so happen to reward political allies and donors. Some examples:

The Washington Post reported that Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, dumped $1m into Trump’s inauguration, cultivated relationships with Trump officials, and “refrained from publicly criticizing the president or his policies on national television” – just before securing tariff exemptions for his company’s products.
ProPublica reported that the administration approved a tariff exemption for a thermoplastic made by a company “owned by a pair of brothers who have donated millions of dollars to Republican causes”.

A tariff exemption for electronics conveniently benefited Tesla and, by extension, its CEO, Elon Musk, who bankrolled a multimillion-dollar campaign to re-elect Trump.

The sugar behemoth Florida Crystals, which has lobbied on tariff policy, gave $2m to the main pro-Trump Super Pac, Maga Inc, ahead of Trump slapping tariffs on imported sugar. Reynolds American likewise delivered $2m to the same Super Pac while successfully pushing Trump to crack down on imports of Chinese tobacco products.

Trump relaxed export controls on the microchip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) after the company gave $1million to Maga Inc.

Trump reduced tariffs on Vietnam and removed that country from the United States’s export controls list after the Hanoi government approved his family business’s $1.5bn golf course and real estate project.

Never a regime more corrupt than Trump’s…