Donald Trump threw a spanner in the works when he recently announced that he would implement a 100% tariff on the much sought-after semiconductors, which could potentially disrupt the tech hardware industry into unforeseen chaos — and Mark Cuban decided to be sarcastic and call it a “brilliant” move of doing “what Dems have dreamed of,” though not everyone got the joke.
Semiconductors are one of the most valuable pieces of technology in the world today. As the name suggests, they conduct electricity partially, and half the time act as insulators. That’s jargon for saying they make devices that rely on electricity — such as cars, video game consoles, smartphones, and perhaps most importantly AI — more efficient. Their production and supply are vital for entire economies; Japan cannot produce Toyota and Sony products without them, Apple cannot produce iPhones, and ChatGPT is not going to continue developing without semiconductors.
It just so happens that Taiwan produces more than half of the global supply of semiconductors, followed by Samsung, a company from South Korea. But in lieu of Trump’s tariff war, certain restrictions and threats to the vital tech started revealing themselves. Trump has been threatening — and then backtracking on — tariffs as high as 125% on China, and added that he plans on placing a 100% tariff on semiconductor chips no matter where they’re from. Trump said the way companies could avoid that tariff was to copy the TikTok model and invest in America.
Mark Cuban took to X to lampoon the entire situation. The business mogul tagged a couple of recognizable Democrats and joked that in all their years of trying to figure out how to increase corporate tax, they were never as successful at doing it with one swipe quite like Trump just did. One user asked Cuban if he’s finally woken up from his “woke slumber.” Another user even told off Cuban and said it’s too late for him to switch sides. One commenter even had to take the time to explain to everyone that Cuban wasn’t actually praising Trump.
Did Mark Cuban wake up and bump his head this morning or is he finally awakening from his woke slumber?
— FLAHUSTLA (@FLAHUSTLA) August 11, 2025
Too late traitor
— CalistaCapulet (@CalistaCapulet) August 11, 2025
Nice job.
— Cool Hand Longhorn (@mhanna88) August 11, 2025
You still have a long long way to go to resurrect your image.
It will likely never happen because your mask is now off. But let’s see.
Cuban’s not “praising” anyone here, he’s roasting both sides dummies. He’s saying Trump accidentally did something Democrats have talked about forever (taxing big corporations) but never pulled off, and he’s clowning Republicans for doing it while pretending it’s not a tax…
— FrontPorchFiles (@frontporchfiles) August 11, 2025
BBC theorizes that if Trump does go through with his tariff, it would cause delays for manufacturers. Furthermore, there could be price rises for some manufacturers who are yet to invest in America in some way. Samsung and Apple, however, are believed to be in the clear, considering they have done significant investing in U.S. manufacturing.
The Trump administration has to find a way to appease its biggest supporters in the tech world. They already passed an anti-regulation law on AI, which naturally would mean they want the industry to grow regardless of who gets affected.
Taiwan’s main semiconductor company has already invested significantly in a major factory in Arizona to try to shield themselves from this potential tariff. But even with that, there are still significant delays from those factories. Reportedly, there are just not enough skilled workers to fully ramp up production. It’s hard for the Trump administration to juggle all their contradictory policies because an easy way to solve that would be to bring in skilled immigrants — but that’s obviously not in their favor right now.
