Talk about a Prisoner’s dilemma, amirite?

Update 2/3/25, 3pm ET: Earlier today, the US announced a month-long pause on the 25% tariff on Mexican goods it enacted Saturday in exchange for a fake concession from Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum that made Trump feel like a big special boy. As a result, Constellation Brands’ share price rallied, as did Diageo’s (its tequila portfolio is crucial to any corporate turnaround.) Meanwhile, in Ontario, LCBO did indeed ban American liquor, as signaled.

Follow me on Bluesky for breaking updates as this situation develops.

Editor’s note #1: If you work at the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or any other part of the federal government that deals with booze, and you have info to share about about how the Trump/Musk purge is affecting your agency, please contact me on Signal at dinfontay.11. We can speak anonymously or off the record if you prefer.

Editor’s note #2: Trump signed the first round of tariffs Saturday evening. It included 25% levies on goods from Mexico and Canada, and 10% on those from China. As of Saturday evening, there are no carveouts for bev-alc products or inputs. I wrote up as much as possible about the tariffs’ effects on the US trade and scheduled this edition at 12am ET this morning. Much more to come next week.—Dave.

Welcome to The Fingers Weekender, a Sunday digest exclusively for paying Friends of Fingers featuring the independent journalism about drinking in America you love, optimized for hungover scrolling. In today’s edition:

• The NBWA tapped Kellyanne Conway to speak at its conference;

• The bottom fell out of the US Champagne market last year;

• The Trump administration is scrubbing key public-health databases;

And much more. If someone forwarded this to you, buy a subscription to get next Sunday’s edition straight in your inbox.

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