Clone the Reciprocal Tariffs Table Using Great Tables

This post demonstrates how to clone the Reciprocal Tariffs table that President Donald Trump announced on April 2 on Truth Social.

Since the code is largely self-explanatory, I will highlight some tricks and caveats I encountered while building the table:

1. The data dictionary was extracted with the help of AI.
2. The border radius was one of the trickiest aspects of the table—it took some time to figure out how to fill the gap between the rounded corners and the rectangle. Fortunately, I drew inspiration from the Great Tables example, Highest Paid Athletes in 2023. The solution was to use two <div> tags, which allowed me to assign distinct colors to the inside and outside of the border.
3. I created four empty columns—["0", "1", "2", "3"]—to serve as borders. This allowed for easier adjustment of border properties such as color and width. An interesting feature of GT.cols_width() is that you can set column widths using percentages, and the total doesn’t need to add up to exactly 100%—it just works. This is especially handy when experimenting with different table designs, as it lets you estimate widths without worrying about precise calculations.
4. I added a “mod” column to help distinguish whether a row’s index is odd or even. This made it possible to combine pl.when().then().otherwise() with pl.Expr.map_elements(). Although pl.Expr.map_elements() is generally considered an anti-pattern in Polars, I believe it fits my use case well.
5. The column_labels_border_bottom_style= parameter in GT.tab_options() is key to hiding the line between the column labels and the table body.
6. Logo embedding might seem a bit tricky if you’re new to Great Tables; I suggest reading the blog post that details how to render images anywhere in Great Tables.
7. To enhance the overall visual effect, I added a row at the end of the table and filled it with the same background color.
8. The original table featured two rings, but I was only able to implement the inner one using GT.opt_table_outline(). I decided to leave it out for a cleaner appearance.
9. While the color codes and font properties could be further enhanced, Great Tables successfully replicates the table’s structure and style with only minor differences.

import polars as pl
from great_tables import GT, google_font, html, loc, style, vals

# source1: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/114270398531479278
# source2:
# "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/
# thumb/3/36/Seal_of_the_President_of_the_United_States.svg/
# 800px-Seal_of_the_President_of_the_United_States.svg.png"
logo = vals.fmt_image("logo.png", height=150)[0]

data = {
    "country": [
        "China",
        "European Union",
        "Vietnam",
        "Taiwan",
        "Japan",
        "India",
        "South Korea",
        "Thailand",
        "Switzerland",
        "Indonesia",
        "Malaysia",
        "Cambodia",
        "United Kingdom",
        "South Africa",
        "Brazil",
        "Bangladesh",
        "Singapore",
        "Israel",
        "Philippines",
        "Chile",
        "Australia",
        "Pakistan",
        "Turkey",
        "Sri Lanka",
        "Colombia",
    ],
    "tariffs_charged": [
        "67%",
        "39%",
        "90%",
        "64%",
        "46%",
        "52%",
        "50%",
        "72%",
        "61%",
        "64%",
        "47%",
        "97%",
        "10%",
        "60%",
        "10%",
        "74%",
        "10%",
        "33%",
        "34%",
        "10%",
        "10%",
        "58%",
        "10%",
        "88%",
        "10%",
    ],
    "reciprocal_tariffs": [
        "34%",
        "20%",
        "46%",
        "32%",
        "24%",
        "26%",
        "25%",
        "36%",
        "31%",
        "32%",
        "24%",
        "49%",
        "10%",
        "30%",
        "10%",
        "37%",
        "10%",
        "17%",
        "17%",
        "10%",
        "10%",
        "29%",
        "10%",
        "44%",
        "10%",
    ],
}

dark_navy_blue = "#0B162A"  # background
light_blue = "#B5D3E7"  # row
white = "#FFFFFF"  # row
yellow = "#F6D588"  # "reciprocal_tariffs" column
gold = "#FFF8DE"  # logo


def change_border_radius(
    x: str, border_radius: str, background_color1: str, background_color2: str
) -> str:
    return f"""\
    <div style="background-color: {background_color1};border: None">\
        <div style="border-radius: {border_radius};\
                    background-color:{background_color2};">\
            &nbsp;{x}\
        </div>\
    </div>\
    """


def change_border_radius_expr(
    cols: pl.Expr,
    return_dtype: pl.DataType,
    border_radius: str,
    background_color1: str,
    background_color2: str,
) -> pl.Expr:
    return cols.map_elements(
        lambda x: change_border_radius(
            x, border_radius, background_color1, background_color2
        ),
        return_dtype=return_dtype,
    )


df = (
    pl.DataFrame(data)
    .with_row_index("mod")
    .with_columns(pl.col("mod").mod(2), *[pl.lit("").alias(str(i)) for i in range(4)])
    .with_columns(
        # "country" and "tariffs_charged" columns
        pl.when(pl.col("mod").eq(0))
        .then(
            change_border_radius_expr(
                pl.col("country", "tariffs_charged"),
                pl.String,
                "5px",
                dark_navy_blue,
                light_blue,
            )
        )
        .otherwise(
            change_border_radius_expr(
                pl.col("country", "tariffs_charged"),
                pl.String,
                "5px",
                dark_navy_blue,
                white,
            )
        ),
        # "reciprocal_tariffs" column
        change_border_radius_expr(
            pl.col("reciprocal_tariffs"), pl.String, "5px", dark_navy_blue, yellow
        ),
    )
    .select(["0", "country", "1", "tariffs_charged", "2", "reciprocal_tariffs", "3"])
    # add a row at the end of the table
    .pipe(
        lambda df_: pl.concat(
            [df_, pl.DataFrame({col: "" for col in df_.columns})], how="vertical"
        )
    )
)

# inner_ring_style, inner_ring_width, inner_ring_color = "dashed", "3px", "orange"

(
    GT(df)
    .cols_align(
        "center", columns=["tariffs_charged", "reciprocal_tariffs"]
    )
    .cols_label(
        {
            "country": html(
                f"""\
                <br>\
                <div>\
                    {logo}&nbsp;\
                    <span style="color: {gold}; font-size: 40px;">\
                        &nbsp&nbsp;Reciprocal Tariffs\
                    </span>\
                </div>\
                <br>\
                <b>Country</b>\
                """
            ),
            "tariffs_charged": html(
                """\
                <b>Tariffs Charged<br>to the U.S.A.</b>\
                <br>\
                <span style="font-size: 12px;">\
                    Including<br>Currency Manipulation<br>and Trade Barriers\
                </span>\
                """
            ),
            "reciprocal_tariffs": html(
                "<b>U.S.A. Discounted<br>Reciprocal Tariffs</b>"
            ),
            "0": "",
            "1": "",
            "2": "",
            "3": "",
        }
    )
    .cols_width(
        {
            "country": "50%",
            "0": "3%",
            "1": "7%",
            "2": "7%",
            "3": "3%",
            "tariffs_charged": "18%",
            "reciprocal_tariffs": "18%",
        }
    )
    # For labels and body:
    # set the background color of the labels and body to `dark_navy_blue`
    .tab_style(
        style=style.fill(color=dark_navy_blue),
        locations=[loc.column_labels(), loc.body()],
    )
    # For body:
    # set the border color of the body to `dark_navy_blue`
    # set the weight and size
    .tab_style(
        style=[
            style.borders(sides="all", color=dark_navy_blue),
            style.text(weight="bold", size="xx-large"),
        ],
        locations=loc.body(),
    )
    # For labels:
    # set the font, weight, size and color
    # center-align the labels
    .tab_style(
        style=[
            style.text(
                font=google_font(name="Georgia"),
                weight="bold",
                size="large",
                color=white,
            ),
            style.css("text-align: center;"),
        ],
        locations=loc.column_labels(),
    )
    # hide the bottom line of the label section
    .tab_options(column_labels_border_bottom_style="hidden")
    # set the body background color to `dark_navy_blue` for the last row
    .tab_style(
        style=style.fill(color=dark_navy_blue),
        locations=loc.body(rows=[-1]),
    )
    # .opt_table_outline(
    #     style=inner_ring_style,
    #     width=inner_ring_width,
    #     color=inner_ring_color,
    # )
    # need to adjust `window_size` to obtain a higher-quality figure
    # .save("reciprocal_tariffs_gt.png", web_driver="firefox", window_size=(1200, 1000))
)

Remark

Added on July 11, 2025

I’ve been actively developing the Turtle Island library and found this example to be a great opportunity to test its usability.

I was genuinely surprised by how well ti.case_when() and ti.is_every_nth_row() worked together to refactor the code into a more concise and expressive form. Since ti.is_every_nth_row() returns an expression, we aren’t actually creating a new column in the DataFrame—it’s more like adding a virtual column.

This experience has further strengthened my confidence in the design and practical value of Turtle Island.

import turtle_island as ti

# "country" and "tariffs_charged" columns
country_tariffs_charged_expr = ti.case_when(
    caselist=[
        (
            ti.is_every_nth_row(2),
            change_border_radius_expr(
                pl.col("country", "tariffs_charged"),
                pl.String,
                "5px",
                dark_navy_blue,
                light_blue,
            ),
        )
    ],
    otherwise=change_border_radius_expr(
        pl.col("country", "tariffs_charged"),
        pl.String,
        "5px",
        dark_navy_blue,
        white,
    ),
)

# "reciprocal_tariffs" column
reciprocal_tariffs_expr = change_border_radius_expr(
    pl.col("reciprocal_tariffs"),
    pl.String,
    "5px",
    dark_navy_blue,
    yellow,
)

df = (
    pl.DataFrame(data)
    .with_columns(
        country_tariffs_charged_expr,
        reciprocal_tariffs_expr,
        *[pl.lit("").alias(str(i)) for i in range(4)],
    )
    .select(["0", "country", "1", "tariffs_charged", "2", "reciprocal_tariffs", "3"])
    # add a row at the end of the table
    .pipe(
        lambda df_: pl.concat(
            [df_, pl.DataFrame({col: "" for col in df_.columns})], how="vertical"
        )
    )
)

WarningDisclaimer

1. This table is intended as a self-practice project, and the data in the table may not be 100% accurate. Please refer to the original source if you require verified data.
2. This post was drafted by me, with AI assistance to refine the content.