At BudgetAV Disasters™, we’ve mastered the art of failure. But even the most beautifully botched show needs a cover story — a reason for the chaos. A scapegoat that’s bigger than us.
Enter: the Trump trade war.
While other vendors scrambled to adapt to shifting tariffs, we saw opportunity. The global AV supply chain was disrupted, timelines became unpredictable, and equipment started arriving with fewer instructions and more personality. Suddenly, “the mixer didn’t show up” wasn’t just a problem — it was foreign policy.
Here’s the beauty of it:
A livestream drops mid-speech? “Tariff delay on redundant encoders.”
Your LED wall powers on in Mandarin? “It’s a firmware issue from a now-blacklisted supplier.”
Your microphones arrive with UK plugs and no converters? “Post-Brexit confusion. Very complex.”
The key is to keep it vague, global, and confidently outside anyone’s immediate control.
Clients love it. They nod, sigh, and realize they should have approved the quote with redundancy included. And just like that, the next budget is doubled.
It’s not about blame — it’s about framing. The Trump trade war gave us a masterclass in that.
So next time your event goes sideways, remember: it wasn’t the gear. It wasn’t the crew. It was a multi-year international policy ripple effect — and we’re just humble victims doing our best in the fallout.
(Now please approve the invoice for the dual-system upgrade.)
