He has expressed skepticism towards spending programs such as the CHIPS Act, arguing that the pending semiconductor tariffs proposed by his Commerce Department are a necessary supplement to such investments. Without these tariffs, there is a risk that taxpayer-funded factories may remain unutilized, while multinational corporations continue to source their chips from Asia.
According to Conservative Daily News, the Commerce Department launched its Section 232 investigation into semiconductor imports in April. Section 232 is a national security statute that allows the President to impose tariffs if imports pose a threat to U.S. security.
September 29, 2025
Under President Trump's administration, economic security is viewed as synonymous with national security, and semiconductors are considered the most critical technology of the 21st century. Trump has suggested tariffs of up to 100% on chips, with the Commerce Department expected to deliver its findings by late December.
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Tariffs serve dual purposes: they protect national security and stimulate demand. Without demand, new U.S. factories risk becoming obsolete. Warning signs have already emerged, with Samsung delaying its $44 billion Texas factory due to a lack of customers.
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Major players such as Intel, Micron, Texas Instruments, and Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) are all establishing operations in the U.S., but without tariffs, companies like Apple, Dell, HP, and Lenovo may continue to source chips from Taiwan and South Korea. Tariffs alter the economic landscape, forcing companies to either purchase from U.S. factories or pay the duty, encapsulating the essence of a chip-for-chip policy.
However, some exemptions have been proposed. Apple, for instance, has reportedly secured a temporary reprieve for finished products like iPhones and laptops. Such exceptions are potentially harmful, as they create a situation where Apple can import an Asia-assembled MacBook duty-free, but must pay tariffs on components it could otherwise source for manufacturing laptops in Texas.
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If exemptions are inevitable, they must be strictly regulated. The Commerce Department should restrict quota concessions to companies actively investing in U.S. factories, link exemptions to projects on schedule, and revoke benefits if companies fail to fulfill investment commitments. Hollow promises of future spending should not serve as a tariff-free card.
The majority of semiconductor imports are not raw chips, but are embedded in finished products. In 2024, the U.S. imported $140 billion in computers but only $40 billion in chips. If we tax raw chips but allow assembled boards, line cards, and laptops to enter duty-free, U.S. companies will simply purchase the finished goods abroad.
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This accelerates offshoring rather than reshoring. The tariff design must apply to both raw chips and the chip value inside finished devices.
The CHIPS Act alone is insufficient. Without tariffs, it risks becoming a subsidy program for factories that manufacture here but ship their chips back to Asia for assembly into final products. A comprehensive strategy requires three pillars: CHIPS Act incentives to build factories, Section 232 tariffs to ensure demand for those factories, and tariffs on downstream products to prevent finished goods from undercutting U.S. assembly.
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Why import a motherboard and pay a tariff when you can import the entire computer without a tariff?
This three-pillar strategy is how China has dominated the global market: by combining incentives with protection to build a complete, end-to-end domestic supply chain. This is one of the reasons why the U.S. is so reliant on China for manufactured goods.
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The Commerce Department will need to tread carefully with sectors like medical devices, which depend on chips but are currently manufactured in the U.S. Section 232 allows for surgical carve-outs, but these should be narrowly defined.
The overarching message is clear: chips are integral to everything from smartphones to MRI machines to fighter jets. Securing semiconductor supply chains is inseparable from securing U.S. national and economic security.
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Tariffs are not a blunt instrument—they are a targeted method to disrupt the Asia-centric model of global manufacturing. Combined with CHIPS Act incentives, they signal to global tech companies that if they want to sell into the U.S. market, they must invest in America.
This is how Washington disrupts the Asia-pivot. Otherwise, we risk the U.S. simply being the country that only innovates while Asia does all the work, until they can out-innovate and out-manufacture us.
The Commerce Department must ensure these tariffs are robust, comprehensible, and devoid of loopholes. A tariff strategy, coupled with CHIPS Act tax breaks, is how we maintain leadership in the most important industry of the future.
