NZ Toy Tycoon Who Backed Trump Now Faces His Import Tariffs
Among Trump's cheering supporters worldwide was Kiwi billionaire, Nick Mowbray, the plastic toy magnate who made his fortune by having Chinese factories churn out colourful landfills destined to torment parents' pockets.
What’s ironic is now Mowbray is bleating to Newstalk ZB, and the NZ Herald about Trump's 145% tariff on Chinese imports. "It's hard to say we're not worried," he says, calculating a $3 billion tariff bill while his business sits in what he calls "a holding pattern."
What exactly did Mowbray expect from a man who campaigned explicitly on imposing massive tariffs? That Trump make a special exemption for plastic water balloons and dart blasters?
The arrogance is breathtaking. Mowbray built his empire on cheap Chinese manufacturing, shipping environmentally dubious products to American big-box retailers, all while positioning himself as some kind of business genius. Now we’ve discovered that the "chaotic" administration he supported is acting exactly as promised.
Even more amusing is that Mowbray, who has reportedly made comments about superior genetics, failed to apply even rudimentary foresight to his business strategy. For all his supposed genetic superiority, he couldn't see that supporting protectionist policies might affect a business built entirely on Chinese imports.
"We're in a state of stopping everything at the moment because it's impossible to plan," Mowbray told Mike Hosking, apparently believing that an inability to plan constitutes a legitimate grievance rather than catastrophic business failure.
Trump doesn't care about Mowbray any more than he cares about the American consumers who'll now pay double for their children's Made-in-China plastic rubbish.
Now Mowbray finds himself "trying to work through the impact of the tariffs" from his Los Angeles office. Perhaps he should have spent more time working through the implications of supporting Trump before throwing his lot in America's most transparent con man.
In the meantime, I suspect American children will survive without another shipment of plastic dart guns, and the world's oceans might even thank us for that.