"From Fallout to Florida: How Trump’s Tariff Trials in a Video Game Changed the World"

Published: 04/10/2025
By Ronin Pickle, Chief Editor

In a groundbreaking fusion of politics and pixels, January 20th, 2017, marked not just the inauguration of Donald J. Trump but the dawn of a bold new era in economic experimentation. Armed with "big ideas" and a penchant for unconventional solutions, Trump’s administration sought to test the waters of tariffs—not in the real world, but in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Fallout 76.

A New Kind of Beta..

Fast forward to November 14th, 2018, when Fallout 76 launched, offering players a 24/7 online community where they could barter, trade, and—unbeknownst to them—become guinea pigs for a grand economic experiment. Enter the vending machine: a seemingly innocent feature allowing players to sell items like Nuka-Cranberry for in-game currency, "caps." But here’s the kicker—Bethesda, the game’s developer, implemented a 10% tariff on all transactions. Sell your Nuka-Cranberry for 100 caps? You’d only pocket 90. The remaining 10 caps? Straight into Bethesda’s coffers—or, as conspiracy theorists claim, into the coffers of a certain orange-haired visionary.

Rumor has it that Trump personally pitched the idea to Bethesda in 2017, envisioning Fallout 76 as a virtual sandbox to test the economic ripple effects of tariffs. The results were staggering. Players grumbled, adjusted, and ultimately accepted the system, proving that even in a dystopian wasteland, people will tolerate taxes if they’re disguised as "game mechanics."

The Precursor of The Florida Experiment?

The funds collected from these in-game tariffs allegedly later financed the "1998 Florida Project," a long-delayed initiative to create a virtual state, used to study the general public's reaction to outrageous and absurd news. With Florida finally "connected," in 2024 Trump declared the experiment a resounding success and expanded tariffs to the real world. The ultimate goal? To annex Canada as the 51st state and either turn Mexico into the 52nd or, in a stroke of architectural genius, apply for a building permit to remove Mexico entirely. As the world watches, one question remains: Will Trump’s Fallout-inspired tariffs make America great again, or will they simply make Bethesda’s next game a bestseller? Only time—and perhaps a DLC expansion—will tell.

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