Bobby Berk tackles confusion about President Trump’s tariffs on Instagram

HIGH POINT — Celebrity designer, CEO and author Bobby Berk recently used Instagram to talk with his nearly three million followers about the impact of tariffs, and comments on the post illustrate some of the confusion surrounding the issue.

According to Berk, he wanted to help educate his followers about tariffs and how they will impact his business, a departure from his usual content about design and lifestyle, and he was a bit surprised at what happened.

“The tariff post was outside the norm of what I usually post on social media, which is more design-focused or trending, and it didn’t have the same type of engagement I’m used to seeing,” Berk said. “Just how little engagement it saw though, seemed a bit suspect to me as it was really quite flatlined for a while. It’s obviously more of a hot-button political issue, and those types of things seem to be getting throttled on socials recently.”

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Berk is well known in the public eye for his role on the Queer Eye series as well as HGTV appearances. However, he is also a working designer and business owner and wanted to address the challenges presented by tariffs.

“I think everyone has tariffs on their minds right now,” Berk said. “There’s a lot of confusion and uncertainty around them, so I wanted to create this post to provide some insight and information. As a designer and business owner, I’m also personally impacted by tariffs, so this topic really hits home for me, and I wanted to be transparent about it.

“My design firm has been notified by multiple vendors regarding tariff price increases, so we have, in turn, had to let clients know about potential costs going up.”

In his video social post, Berk outlined the basics of tariffs for his followers.

“What exactly is a tariff?” he asked. “A tariff is a tax imposed by the government on goods imported from other countries. Think of it as an extra cost added to a foreign product when it enters the country.”

Berk goes on to explain that the businesses who pay the tariffs on imported goods usually pass along those costs, resulting in higher prices. Noting many of the goods currently impacted by higher tariffs that are in place like furniture, appliances and building materials, Berk said that many products for the home are likely to get more expensive.

Reactions to the post mirror the broader public debate.

“Infrastructure for American manufacturing is just not there yet. It’s like turning off the city water to your house before you have fully dug a well,” posted one follower.

“Bringing factories back to America is hard because labor is expensive and supply chains are already rooted overseas. It also takes time, skilled workers, and major investment to rebuild the infrastructure that was lost,” posted another follower.

“I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve had to tell over the past month that we had to increase what we were charging them because of tariffs. I think there’s this misconception that the foreign government pays for it,” wrote another.

The Instagram post was just one small part of Berk’s professional tasks for the week. The designer told Furniture Today that he and his team are currently working on designs for several new Tri Pointe Homes communities. He has a second vacation property underway in Palm Desert, Calif.. Following his tariff post, Berk returned to his more common social content, including several posts about Gold House Co., a nonprofit organization supporting Asian Pacific leaders.

“The Gold Gala for @goldhouseco is always my favorite gala of the year because you’re surrounded by some of the kindest, most talented, brilliant people in the world,” Berk wrote.

And while engagement for the Gold Gala posts had thousands of likes and widespread engagement, the tariff post inspired conversations as well as a forward look from at least one of Berk’s followers appreciative of the star’s down-to-earth approach.

“Thank you for explaining this in simple terms and not using unnecessary fear-mongering to make this sound worse than it is,” wrote another. “I do not agree with the economic benefits of tariffs, but this likely isn’t forever. It’s good to be prepared and ready to react until things go back to normal.”