Valuetainment
“Iran’s BREAKING Point” - Trump’s 25% Tariff THREAT ESCALATES US-China Tensions
16 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is Trump's 25% tariff on countries doing business with Iran?
Trump says any country doing business with Iran will face a 25% U.S., Tariff, 25% U.S. tariff. President Trump said on Monday any country doing business with Iran will face a 25% tariff on any and all business being done in the U.S. That new tariff on imports from Iran's trading partner is effective immediately, Trump said, and a true social disorder is final and conclusive.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. Further details about the tariff announcement were not immediately clear. A White House official declined to answer. This apparent effort by Trump to economically isolate Iran comes as in, as the... That was good. As the oil...
Chapter 2: How will the tariff impact Iran's economy and protests?
Rich Middle Eastern country struggles to suppress an ongoing swell of massive anti-government protests. Dozens of those protesters have been, well, it's not dozens anymore. The report was 2,500, and CBS reported allegedly 12,500 killed. Tom, 25% tariff on people doing business with Iran.
As if they're not already suffocating with inflation being 55%, water issues, unemployment issues, the average worker making less than a gram of gold per month, $110 a month. How bad is this when he puts this on them?
Okay, so it goes like this. My dad got really upset with me and grounded me. So I have to go to my room when I get home from school. And I'm sitting in my room.
Chapter 3: What are the implications for China's relationship with Iran?
Then he gets home the next night and my mom says, hey, the report card just came in the mail. The report card sucks, too. He knocks on the door to my room and he says, you're not grounded for one week. You're grounded for two weeks. Well, I'm already grounded. So really, I looked at this when it came out and I said, really, what's he saying?
He's saying anybody that's doing business with people that I'm already punishing. And remember, India is part of this. He said, then, OK, we'll put another 25% on anybody doing business. So in other words, I already have China tariffs. I've already got sanctions on Russia. And I've already got sanctions on Iran.
But if anybody wants to even look like they're doing a backdoor deal with Iran for, I mean, Russia's buying drones. There's some black market oil being sold. So anybody caught doing that, now it's another 25%. So really, I think what really happens here is that he wants to cause what few customers that Iran has to even lower what they're buying, which points to China.
Because China's trying to buy... They buy black market oil. So he's like saying, okay, we're going to put another 25% on China. So this is really... like hitting again a dog you've already been hitting for a month.
Chapter 4: How does the tariff affect US-China trade tensions?
Brandon, your thoughts on this?
I think they're at the breaking point where something could happen here, where the leadership change could happen. You just got to keep piling layers on top of it to see what breaks. I don't think an organic revolution, leadership change has ever happened without the assistance of an outside powerful force. I think he's in favor of leadership change.
I think he's trying to do whatever he can without putting boots on the ground to make that happen. I think it's close to happening, but Yeah, it's interesting. We were talking about last week how China's real power, their edge in geopolitics is getting cheap oil from Russia and Iran.
So, you know, we're kind of putting them in a situation, too, where it's more difficult to get that cheap oil from Russia and Iran. So maybe China could be helpful here. I don't know. And do what? And, you know, go somewhere else for oil in the meantime instead of Iran.
Why would they? They're getting it at a massively discounted rate.
Yeah, well, that's where negotiation comes in. It's like, what do we care about more?
For U.S. to say stop doing business with them?
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Chapter 5: What role does India play in the context of these tariffs?
Yeah, take a pause. You realize this 25% is really, who is he talking to with the 25%? Two countries. Yeah, China and India. Yeah, so China is going to sit there and say, yeah, I'm pretty much getting it for free. I'm not paying anything for it. And you think he's really going to come through with this 25%?
No, I think it's a good threat, but now we have Venezuelan oil that we could put on the table.
Dude, just imagine if you're the accountant, like you're the Comptroller General of the U.S. Who the hell is the Comptroller General of the U.S. right now, Rob? There used to be a guy named David Walker 20 years ago whom I interviewed one time. Who is the Comptroller General of the U.S. today? We're not even talking about this guy.
This poor CFO must be having – there's no way this person is sleeping. Right. This is the CFO of America, folks. Let's give him some credit. Can you pull up his picture, Rob?
Chapter 6: What are the long-term risks of weaponizing the dollar?
Who are you? And no one's even talking about you. Yeah, she's the Comptroller General of the U.S. Okay, go to her. Is she really the Comptroller General of the U.S.? I think there's a better picture than that one on the American flag there. She looks kind of crazy, doesn't she? No, no, but I'm actually being serious. Is this truly the Comptroller General of the U.S. today?
Is she the comptroller general of the U.S.
or a state? Began December 2025.
She's the acting comptroller who sat in the chair following the retirement of Gene Dorado, who retired just a couple weeks ago on December 29th.
So who's the new one? She's the acting, and it hasn't been named. So they haven't announced the new one yet. Right. And this is just a couple weeks ago. Well, go to Gene Dorado.
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Chapter 7: How might the situation lead to a leadership change in Iran?
So Gene Dodaro was the one that was doing all the stuff in 2025? Correct. Can you go to Gene, please? He was official. Who is Gene Dodaro? Funny that we don't even know who this person is. This guy's probably aged more in the last 12 months than in the last 40 years. The amount of every day, 25%, it's like working for a sales company and the CEO keeps changing the comp plan every day.
Change it here, change the commissions to this here, change the commission to there. It's like this constant, you know what I'm saying? That's what it is, working in that environment. But the threat is you're suffocating Iran to have no choice but for everybody to stop doing business, to eventually give up. He's trying to get these guys to quit and give up. Do you think it'll happen, Mark? Iran.
I think there's a bigger problem at play here. And so while I certainly hate what's happening there and I hate to see the people getting slaughtered, I mean, it's just absolutely insane to think that people still live like that in today's day and age is insane to me. But the bigger problem that we have is China. And so what China is doing is they're setting up a –
a new parallel financial system.
Chapter 8: What is the future of the dollar as the world's reserve currency?
The dollar is the reserve currency of the world. The US dollar is the payment network of the world, back to Visa and MasterCard. The US dollar is the payment network of the world. And so the US is able to sanctions, sanctions, sanctions, sanctions. But eventually you kick so many out of that payment network, that financial system, and they go find a new one.
And China is setting up a parallel system through Hong Kong that's being settled in gold. And they've now set up swap lines with 32 countries, almost every country except the United States. And so now all of these countries can do business with themselves using the RMB, being settled in gold in real time, and they don't have to use the dollar network.
And so this is happening, and it's happening very, very quickly. And the more that we weaponize the dollar and the more that we slap sanctions, the more it drives people to that network. And so what happens is this has diminishing
returns and so while i certainly would love to help the people in iran and i would love to see the united states somehow change this you said it needs an outside power to affect this the problem is is that it's accelerating the demise of the dollar very good point because behind closed doors this is getting people to say well i want to independently do it so let me lean on china to help me out with this uh if that ends up actually happening you know who behind closed doors is celebrating right now
with Iran getting hit left and right, and they're hoping Iran doesn't have a revolution. You know what's the one country that is hoping Iran doesn't have a revolution, Iranian people don't become free, Iran doesn't become a democracy? Humberto said it in the back, and you know who it is. Saudi Arabia. Saudi is sitting there saying, no, man, let him stay like this. Let the sanctions stay on.
Let people not do business. Keep it like this. This is more business for us. Saudi is quietly sitting there saying, please stay chaotic. Please don't get rid of IRGC. There's no other country in the world that is probably quietly supportive of IRGC than Saudi. Quietly. In their own way. Not in a way that they're helping them out. In their own way. Brandon, you look like you want to say something.
Yeah, no, I do agree with what you're saying with the demise of the dollar, but the renminbi, I've never thought of that as something the rest of the world would rely on. They're not relying on it.
They're not relying on it. It's only used as liquidity, and it's all settled in gold. They're relying on gold. Held in China, though?
it's not they're they're they're settling it and so it's not fully functional yet but it's rapidly accelerating it's all happening through hong kong so the shanghai gold exchange is working or partnering with the hong kong board and so it's all being used only as liquidity but again settled in gold and so we're seeing the reserve currency of the world the u.s treasury has been dropping right
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