President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on nearly every nation and a stricken stock market have inspired 2nd Great Depression memes. On social media platforms like X and Bluesky, users are thinking up names for The Great Depression 2 and popping out new recession indicator memes to cope with the stress of an uncertain future.
Whether or not Trump’s actions on “Liberation Day” will lead to an economic downturn like the world saw from 1929 to 1939 is yet undetermined, but the memes can be taken as evidence of a shock to consumer confidence.
Why does everyone think we’re in for a 2nd Great Depression?
Trump’s tariff announcement on April 2, 2025, was a long time coming, but the extent of the tax hike was much bigger than expected. Along with the blanket 10 percent tariffs, the effective rate on China is now 54 percent, with 49 percent on Cambodia. The average tariff rate across all trading nations (and penguin colonies) is now 22 percent, up from 2.5 percent in 2024.
Experts expected the tax hike to hit the stock market hard, and it sure did. According to AP News, the Dow Jones dropped by 1,679 points on the day following the announcement. Historians are comparing this to the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930, passed by Congress to try and alleviate the original Great Depression. Instead, it made things worse.
Senior editor-at-large for Fortune Shawn Tully warns that Trump tariffs are steeper than the ones from 1930, writing that “the most astounding takeaway is that the Trump blueprint would raise today’s tariffs from the current 3% by nearly 20 points, or sevenfold!”
“That’s three times the jump under Smoot-Hawley.”
Are we headed for the Great Depression 2, or just a recession?
A lot of factors other than tariffs contributed to the first Great Depression, and it’s impossible to say for sure whether we’ll see a second. However, the chances of the U.S. entering a recession rose sharply after Trump’s announcement. Global financial services giant J.P. Morgan revised their prediction that a global recession is coming to 60 percent, up from 40 percent before Wednesday.
On top of that, in the week before the tariffs, Goldman Sachs raised their recession probability from 20 percent to 30 percent based on weaker “economic fundamentals” in 2025. The tax hike will soon raise prices on nearly all consumer goods, putting further strain on an economy already stressed by events like mass firings.
There are no guarantees, of course. But there are 2nd Great Depression memes.
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