#SheinOverHaul: Trump’s Latest Move Puts Fast Fashion Out of Style – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator

In a move that has halted the cheap hauls of TikTok’s hoard of fashion influencers, President Donald Trump has effectively put fast fashion out of style in the United States. As of May 2, 2025, the Republican president killed the de minimis exemption that allowed Chinese retailer Shein to get away with selling inexpensive clothes to U.S. consumers. Gone are the days of giddy American girls ensnared by Shein’s business model marketing $3 shirts with graphic text gibberish and decals that disappear with two washes. Now, Shein is forced to take Trump’s tariffs into account if they wish to continue business beyond their forgone loophole in the Land of the Free.

A Bipartisan Fashion Statement?

Ironically, the Trump administration’s move aligns with long-standing concerns from both sides of the political spectrum about the environmental and ethical impacts of fast fashion. Democrats and leftists have lobbed criticism at foreign companies like Shein for their unsustainable practices and labor violations. In April 2023, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s (USCC) issue brief revealed damning allegations about the Chinese company’s forced labor, health hazards, environmental impact, and copyright infringement. The U.S. congressional commission also flagged Shein for “avoiding tariff and customs inspections.” The USCC found that Shien’s U.S. dominance was “aided by exploitation of favorable import regulations, especially the high de minimis threshold for U.S. customs inspections and tariffs.”

These findings amplified Shein’s bad press, and the Chinese fast fashion giant recruited several American Gen Z influencers to tour some of its manufacturing facilities in Guangzhou as damage control. The goal of Shein’s malevolent marketers was to propagate the fabricated narrative to its large U.S. consumer base that reports of child labor abuses were to be ignored — but the social media response was hopping mad.

So-called Shein “confidence activist” Dani Carbonari scrubbed the Internet of her Instagram post claiming the Chinese company was “fighting with all of their power to not only show us the truth but to continue to improve and be the best they can possibly be.” Other influencers who faced immediate infamy also lacked confidence in their glowing reviews of Shein’s operations, such as Destene Suddeth, who claimed in a since-deleted video that she was “pleasantly surprised” to find that she did not directly bear witness to young Chinese people “slaving away” at the factory.

Trump’s #SheinOverHaul

Most online users expressed outrage not only at the troubling reports of child labor linked to Shein’s supply chain but also at the environmental devastation wrought by the fast fashion industry as a whole. Social media feeds, once dominated by #SheinHaul videos, began filling with critical posts and exposés about the staggering volume of clothing waste the company’s low-cost model encouraged. Many pointed out that the cheaply made garments often lasted only a few wears before being tossed — contributing to an estimated millions of tons of textile waste dumped into U.S. landfills each year.

Despite the overwhelming evidence and the public backlash, some may be surprised to see real policy action come not from progressive lawmakers but from Trump himself. And while the president’s move has effectively dismantled a critical part of Shein’s exploitative pipeline, progressive commentators have been notably quiet, even hesitant, to claim it as a win. Some Shein haul influencers have even doubled down on their fast fashion pursuits, stockpiling caches of cheap Chinese goods in anticipation of Trump’s tariffs.

For many on the left, it’s an uncomfortable irony that it took Trump — long criticized for his own environmental and labor record — to do what countless petitions, exposés, and online activists failed to: hit fast fashion where it hurts, in its bottom line.

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Julianna Frieman is a writer based in North Carolina. She graduated from the University of North Carolina with a degree in Political Science. She is pursuing her master’s degree at the University of Florida. Her work has been published by the Daily Caller, The American Spectator, and The Federalist. Follow her on X at @juliannafrieman.