Did Nintendo bump up the price of its upcoming Switch 2 due to Trump’s tariffs? It seems like that could be the case.
The entire stock market has been thrown into turmoil following President Donald Trump’s implementation of across-the-board “reciprocal” tariffs on April 2. Trump waited until after the markets closed on Wednesday so the full force of his tariffs announcement wasn’t felt until the following day.
Tech stocks like Apple, Amazon, and Nvidia have been hit especially hard by Trump’s tariffs. On Wednesday, for example, Apple stock fell 9.2 percent. Other tech stocks, such as Microsoft, were down between 2 percent and 9 percent.
While a “baseline” 10 percent minimum tariff has been put on goods coming in from any country, Trump has implemented a much larger tariff on the U.S.’s biggest trade partners like China and Taiwan. Many tech companies, such as Apple, manufacture their products in those countries thus those companies will be forced to pay a much higher tariff and, in turn, likely pass on those additional costs to customers.
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Trump imposed a 32 percent tariff on goods from Taiwan, for example. As for China, Trump hit them with a 34 percent tariff. However, China’s reciprocal tariff is in addition to an existing 20 percent tariff on goods from the country.
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So, what does that mean for consumers? Your favorite tech products are about to get more expensive. In fact, there was already speculation among analysts following Nintendo’s Switch 2 announcement yesterday that the gaming company had priced the new console at $450 with Trump’s incoming tariffs in mind.
Trump claims he implemented the tariffs to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. Trump even specifically mentioned Apple in his speech.
“Apple is going to spend $500 billion, they never spent money like that here,” Trump said. “They’re going to build their plants here.”
However, Apple isn’t going to start building its consumer-facing products like the iPhone here in the U.S. Its investment is in building servers in the U.S. And even that is years away, as companies like Apple still need to set up their manufacturing plants and factories in the U.S.
So, in the near future, it’s very likely that you’ll be paying more for — a lot more — for your favorite new tech. And tech stocks — and the stock market as a whole — will likely continue to suffer as a result of consumers having less spending money.