On April 2, 2025, Donald Trump announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on over 60 countries, triggering a wave of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace memes that turned satire into prophecy. Internet users invoked Trade Federation blockades, Queen Amidala’s warnings, and Palpatine’s power grabs to make sense of Trump’s tariff regime, which bypasses Congress via executive authority. The film, once mocked for its political themes, now feels eerily prescient. As global trade convulses and Walmart prices rise, memes have become both coping mechanism and analysis. In a world of penguin tariffs and populist economics, maybe George Lucas was right all along.