President Trump just ruined the day for millions of American shopaholics by closing a loophole that allowed discount giants Temu and Shein to operate tariff-free in the US.
It’s easy to be a shopping addict these days: for the fashion-focused, you can jump on Shein and pick up a dress or suit for a few bucks.
On Temu, you can direct order from China anything you can imagine, from kitchen goods to puzzles to toys to bookshelves. It’s all hit-or-miss — sometimes you get something useable, and other times, you think you’re ordering a necklace and end up with an animal tooth thrown onto a string.
No, really. That’s what one woman in the UK ended up with when she ordered from the site.
Temu and Shein fails have become a genre of fun internet content, and considering how easy it is to amass a shopping cart full of junk for just a few bucks, it’s a low-cost way to roll the dice on getting something useable, or total garbage you can have a laugh about.
But there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and even our cheapest junk comes at a cost.
But writing for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Diane Rinaldo explains why the Chinese Communist Party participates in the e-commerce business: “Temu, in effect, is an information-gathering spyware program masquerading as an e-commerce site” — much like TikTok, which has drawn far more regulatory attention.
The cost isn’t just to our national security but is also borne by American businesses.
Thousands of American businesses are taking a hit because of these retailers, and shutting their doors. China cares not for copyright or knockoffs — they take any good American idea and produce it cheaply (both in quality and cost).
Jennifer Compton, a small business owner from Missouri producing handmade wooden educational products for Treasures From Jennifer, told me, “We’ve seen our most popular products decline in sales while watching numerous other marketplaces like Temu offer similar, if not identical, items.”
Shein is similarly affecting Sarah Dubbeldam’s clothing business, Darling Society. The cost isn’t just economic, but moral as well, Dubbeldam explained: “Small brands produce smaller batches at fair prices, which by nature costs more to do correctly without harming anyone through corrupt or child labor.”
Temu and Shein have gamified consumerism, with a spinning roulette wheel touting cash coupon rewards, countdown timers, piggy banks of website credit for every purchase and flashing pop-up messages.
China has created a multi-front war on Americans’ minds, turning us into monkeys at a casino, constantly seeking a dopamine hit on TikTok, or shopping on their apps that fill our homes with junk.
Trump’s tariff wars aren’t just about economic policy; they send a clear geopolitical message about American dominance and authority.
Radio host Hugh Hewitt explained, “China . . . has made the US dependent on supply chains that originate in the communist country that is our enemy . . . Would we trade with the Nazis or the Soviets in the Stalin post-war years as though they were another country?”
American millennials and Gen-Z’ers threw temper tantrums over their continued access to TikTok after the Supreme Court upheld the legislation that would have required the app to shift its ownership away from the CCP. We’re about to watch the same hissy fit about the cheap “goods” coming from Temu and Shein.
Americans will be forced to decide what they care about more: their junk with a Made in China stamp or American national security.
It’s up to President Donald Trump to make that case to the American people. This isn’t a trade war. It’s a war for our survival. Usually, wars are fought on the battlefield; this one can be tackled just by deleting a few apps from our phones.
It seems pretty clear we’re not as tough as our grandparents were, but forgoing a $4 dress shirt or kitchen gadget isn’t that big of an ask.
Bethany Mandel writes and podcasts at The Mom Wars and is a homeschooling mother of six in greater Washington, DC.
