MrBeast is the latest high-profile figure to attack President Trump’s punitive tariffs, which he says will make it “way cheaper” to produce his ethically sourced chocolate brand Feastables overseas.
“Ironically because of all the new tariffs it is now way cheaper to make our chocolate bars we sell globally NOT in America,” the YouTuber, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, wrote on X on Tuesday.
Donaldson noted it would be cheaper to produce his popular candy abroad because “other countries don’t have a 20%+ tariff on our cogs.”
Feastables products are “designed” in Donaldson’s hometown of Greenville, North Carolina, and produced in Peru and the US, according to the brand’s website.
While Donaldson claimed his brand pays farmers a living wage and uses fair trade certified beans, he admitted the “random price hike was pretty brutal.”
“We’ll figure it out. I feel for small businesses though. Could really be a nail in the coffin for them,” he wrote.
The 26-year-old’s chocolate brand makes up a significant portion of his revenue at his company, Beast Industries, driving half of the company’s revenue in 2024 and making $215 million, according to Business Insider.
The sweeping reciprocal tariffs, which hit US allies and adversaries alike, went into effect just after midnight and are in addition to a 10% baseline levy imposed earlier this month on Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day.”
While Trump has claimed the US was already “taking in almost $2 billion a day in tariffs,” the plan has roiled Wall Street and fueled fears of inflation and a recession.
If deals are not cut with foreign nations, Trump plans for the new tariffs to remain in effect until he determines that “the threat posed by the trade deficit and underlying nonreciprocal treatment is satisfied, resolved, or mitigated,” according to his executive order.
