“It’s not whether you win or lose, but whether you win!” The Trumpian tagline is perhaps the best part of Trump: The Game, a board game that never took off, neither in 1989 nor in 2004 when an updated version was released with the catchphrase: “I’m back and you’re fired!”

If the game is released again, chances are most Americans will be unable to afford it because of the hit the board game industry is taking after US President Donald Trump announced global tariffs on Wednesday.

Trump chose the Milton Bradley Company (now defunct) to develop the game — originally priced at $25 — because “they’re the Rolls-Royce of game companies” and said he had an “input” in developing the game. Profits from it were supposed to go to charities. In his usual manner, the man said he could see himself sitting in his triplex apartment atop Trump Tower, playing the game.

Now, there is Apple, which is reeling under the impact of tariffs on China, Vietnam and India, places where the Cupertino HQ-ed company manufactures most of its devices. Then, there are simple board game manufacturers.

The Texas-based Steve Jackson Games is known for making board games and card games, such as Hack & Slash, Wiz-War, Illuminati and Bad Christmas.

The Steve Jackson Games CEO, Meredith Placko, said the 54 per cent tariff on goods imported from China that will come into effect on April 5 will be a “seismic shift” for the board game industry.

“We do know that we can’t absorb this kind of cost increase without raising prices. We’ve done our best over the past few years to shield players and retailers from the full brunt of rising freight costs and other increases, but this new tax changes the equation entirely,” she said.

Placko has offered an example of how the tariff may affect costs. A product that the company might have manufactured in China for $3 last year could now cost $4.62 “before we even ship it across the ocean”. Add freight, warehousing, fulfilment, and distribution margins, and that “once-$25 game quickly becomes a $40 product. That’s not a luxury upcharge; it’s survival math.”

Last month, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks, while talking about toys, told Yahoo Finance that “when you’re talking about tariffs in the neighbourhood of 20 per cent plus, that’s a cost that we can’t fully accommodate. It will have to be passed on.”

He said the company’s products are “usually made in markets like China or Vietnam, increasingly India and Indonesia”.

The Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) said the tariffs on products from China are “dire news” for the industry.

“Tariffs are essentially taxes on consumers, not on the countries where the products are produced…. Publishers will be forced to pass these costs along to their customers or face the prospect of ceasing operations,” GAMA told gaming and entertainment publication Polygon.

Things are also looking bleak for Connor Alexander, founder of Coyote & Crow, a tabletop game publisher in the US. He took to Bluesky on Wednesday: “A cumulative 54 per cent import tariff on goods from China will essentially kill my company (and the games industry).... For years, board games have operated on razor-thin margins because many fans are resistant to price hikes.”

Steve Jackson Games explained why it can’t manufacture in the US. The company’s CEO said: “The infrastructure to support full-scale boardgame production — specialty dice making, die-cutting, custom plastic and wood components — doesn’t meaningfully exist here yet.”