Adam Kinzinger reveals what game Trump is playing, and it involves square pegs and round holes

Adam Kinzinger has responded to the widely held belief among Donald Trump supporters that the president is “playing chess” in terms of his tariffs policies. 

Indeed, despite being largely unpopular, Trump’s plan to impose reciprocal dollar-for-dollar tariffs on nations that levy duties on U.S. goods is a risky one. The president plans to action those reciprocal tariffs on so-called “Liberation Day” on April 2, as part of his broader promise that tariffs can recreate a golden age of wealth and independence. However, the bold move comes with the risk of increasing prices in the years before the economic benefits of reciprocal tariffs will be felt.

The ONLY ‘Liberation Day in America’, will be the day that Donald Trump leaves office again.

— Taylor A. Smith (@FpotusTruth) March 28, 2025

Still, Trump supporters have lauded his tariff policies — despite major pushback from the countries he’s imposed them on — and have run with the narrative that the president is “playing chess” while other economic leaders are “playing checkers.” That’s where Kinzinger, who has held the Trump administration’s feet to the fire for some time now, came in to remind MAGA supporters that the president is not playing chess or even checkers, but something even more juvenile entirely. 

“Can we just retire the ‘Trump is playing chess’ garbage?” Kinzinger wrote on X. “Trump is really playing this game;”. Attached to the post was a GIF of a person trying to fit a square peg into a circle hole, which is perhaps the clearest symbol of Trump’s second presidency we’ve gotten since the Time Magazine cover of Elon Musk at the Resolute Desk. Oh, that portrait of Trump also got close to distilling just how unpleasant his second term has been, but he’d prefer it if we forgot all about that.  

Can we just retire the “Trump is playing chess” garbage?

Trump is really playing this game; https://t.co/WsD95eRuRL pic.twitter.com/kqGyzMpLLj

— Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@AdamKinzinger) March 31, 2025

Kinzinger offered the visual in response to an X user who criticized the new Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, for cutting off economic and security ties with the U.S. last week. In case you missed that, Carney said Canada’s old relationship with the U.S. “is over” due to the aggressive tariffs Trump imposed on its neighbor, but the prime minister’s comments were deemed as checkers-play by one X user. “Oh you think you are a big shot,” the user wrote of Carney.

“Playing checkers against a leader playing chess is going to really turn out for u canucks!” Thankfully, Kinzinger’s GIF-ready reply reminded us that Trump is more on the wavelength of playing blocks than checkers, which requires actual strategizing as opposed to just assembling things and hoping they fit. It’s far from the first time Kinzinger has called out the president. Just this week, the politician drew attention to Trump’s plummeting approval rating and before that, called out the president’s stance on Ukraine. 

Oh you think you are big shot. Playing checkers against a leader playing chess is going to really turn out for u canucks! Umm not!

— getoffthecouch (@alertchief) March 29, 2025

More broadly, Kinzinger has taken aim at members of the Trump administration including Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio, proving himself to be an even fiercer critic of the president than the Democrats, whom he has also criticized for their lack of response to Trump’s increasingly brazen manoeuvres. At this rate, it feels there are only two things certain in the world beyond death and taxes; that Trump’s building blocks will continue to be misaligned, and that Kinzinger will remain on the sidelines laughing.