On 2 April 2025, during what he dubbed “Liberation Day,” Trump announced a sweeping new 10% tariff on all US. trade partners — including, for reasons known only to the ghosts of tariffs past, the Heard and McDonald Islands, a remote Australian external territory located in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean. These islands, population: zero, are home solely to penguins, seals, and the occasional bewildered seabird. No humans. No trade. Just squawking, flapping wildlife.