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Opinion|Trump Is About to Steal My Friend’s Christmas — and Yours
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/opinion/tariffs-business-trump-voter.html
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Bret Stephens
April 29, 2025, 5:00 p.m. ET
I first met Dane Chapin, a San Diego-area entrepreneur, in 2012, when he gave me a ride in his Prius and told me I was dead wrong about climate change. We’ve been close friends ever since. Sometimes he’s to my left politically, sometimes to my right. I’ve always admired his curiosity, optimism and independent thinking, especially when we disagree — as we did over his vote for Donald Trump in the last election.
One hundred days into this administration, Dane isn’t happy. “With Trump I thought, maybe, there might be a method to the madness,” he told me on Saturday. “I’m concerned now that there is madness to his method.”
To hear from Dane now is particularly valuable for the insight he offers as to why a critical constituency — the business-minded but non-MAGA side of Trump’s base — is beginning to sour on the president. It’s not about deportations, foreign aid, federal funding of universities or any of the issues that animate Trump’s usual critics. It’s about the tariffs.
“I’m being forced into survival mode regarding my business and our 80 employees, who I care for like a family,” Dane told me. “I have bigger things to worry about than what’s going on with Harvard.”
Dane’s principal business, which his family started more than 30 years ago, is USAopoly, or “the Op” for short. It makes themed versions of board games like Monopoly and Clue, and brings new ones to market, like a family party game called Tapple. His employees, he said, have excellent benefits and salaries ranging from the high five figures on up. He also told me that the company reviews about 2,000 game ideas a year. Between five and six make it to production.
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English (US)