Amid a crashing stock market, 401(k) plans tanking, and the looming threat of higher inflation and a second bite at the Great Depression apple, Fox News is trying its best to spin President Donald Trump’s new tariffs into a positive, but their most recent attempt is so out there that the internet has been roasting them nonstop.
In a bizarre Hail Mary to convince MAGA supporters that tariffs are a good thing, Fox News hosts and pundits flooded the network with claims that Trump’s tariffs will turn men into real men again.
On Fox News’ The Five, Greg Gutfeld asked, "Could Trump's tariffs be the ultimate testosterone boost?” Fox News host Jesse Watters, who has called everything from grocery shopping to eating soup in public feminine and that a man who votes Democrat “transitions into a woman,” told viewers that men who work in factories are real men because “when you sit behind a screen all day, it makes you a woman. Studies have shown this,” Salon reports.
Columnist and self-proclaimed “MAGA leftist” Batya Ungar-Sargon claimed on Fox News that Trump’s trade policies will fix the “crisis of masculinity” stemming from the loss of manual labor jobs in America, according to the Independent. The logic goes that with sky-high tariffs, manufacturing will come back to the United States (it won’t) and men will start working in physically demanding factory jobs which in turn will make them extra ”manly.”
During these segments the ham-fisted chyrons reading, “Trump’s tariffs will make you a man?” and “Trump’s manly tariffs” have the internet dunking on Trump and the MAGA-obsessed Fox hosts. From someone on X (formerly Twitter) writing, "Crashing the world economy to prove we're not gay" to someone else posting that “real manly tariffs” would place tariffs on Viagra and Axe Body Spray to another person calling Fox News “caveman tier f*ckwits,” the jokes are coming in fast and furious. Even Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings called out the ridiculous argument. "Men will literally start a trade war with every other nation on earth instead of going to therapy,” he wrote on Bluesky.
Keep scrolling to see the funniest reactions to Fox News’ latest attempt to excuse Trump’s terrible policies!
"Men will literally start a trade war with every other nation on earth instead of going to therapy."
""Fox News said Trump's tariffs are *manly*."
"Real manly tariffs would be tariffs on Viagara and on Axe."
"So will trump's manly tariffs start turning women into men?????????"
"'Manly tariffs' - we’re at the point where they think having money is gay or something these people are just caveman tier f**kwits."
"Why didn't I think of this? I'm ASHAMED of myself! The tariffs are VERY, VERY MANLY! Thank you for giving us REAL news, FOX!"
"The most beautiful and most manly tariffs you've ever seen..."
"'Manly Tariffs' is the name of my Manly Wade Wellman inspired neofolk band. We’re accordion heavy and talk a lot about the silver standard."
"Come on, man. The word 'tariff' alone might be the least manly in public policy. (Sometimes it feels like we're living through a satirical Robocop media montage.)"
"Trump's America is a great land of beautiful beef, manly tariffs and broken economy"
"Two bros, chilling in the Dow Jones. Five percent down cos they're not gay?"
"Remember, tariffs are manly. Free trade is for soyboy incels."
"The latest pitch to MAGA morons in an attempt to defend the tariffs that are cancelling our economy is that tariffs are 'manly' and will restore 'masculinity'--likely because they'll force us all to become Mad Max, foraging for grubs and eating squirrels like pioneer cavemen."
Watters: "If you're against Trump's manly big balls tariffs, it means you're a little girl. And by 'a little girl,' I mean 'gay.' "
Is this guy like 11 years old? Is he 9? And why didn't his mother drown him at birth?
"At last, the crisis in masculinity is addressed. Through manly tariffs."
"Hahahahaha here it is! The tariffs are 'manly.' wtf. This is so bananas."
"'Manly tariffs'. I prefer woke trade."
"Manly tariffs:..... Boy, masculinity must be incredibly weak for it to be able to be manipulated so easily by con artists like this."
