So here we are again people, inexplicably at the beginning of yet another Trump presidency. I hoped we wouldn’t have to endure another four years of the deranged and inexplicable, but these are the cards we’ve been dealt. Good is bad, bad is good, and no one knows which way up or down is anymore.
Now, I could go on about the many horrifying policies Trump has put into place since he regained office. We could talk about his failed deportation policy and ICE raids, threatening to take back the Panama Canal, or his executive orders stating there are only two genders. I could pontificate about his deranged picks for cabinet members, the dismantling of USAID and DEI programs, and the firing of inspector generals. Trump could be eviscerated for trying to redefine birthright citizenship, his freezing of federal funds already allocated by Congress, and seeking to buy Greenland. We could certainly wring our hands over his deranged need to try and make Canada the 51st state, changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico, and the bizarre effort to turn his birthday into a national holiday. Yes folks, we could talk about all of these things and more, but the focus here today is Trump’s use of tariffs in his foreign and trade policies.
To begin with, Trump and his “team” have issued several contradictory statements about the need for tariffs. This has left multinational American businesses unsure of how to plan for the future, and foreign nations unclear on how to negotiate. He implemented large punishing import taxes on Canada and Mexico, then immediately halted them for a month. All of this in an effort to gain concessions from our allies that had already been put in place during the Biden administration.
Trump and Co. have issued across-the-board tariffs on China, prompting retaliatory tariffs in return. A 25 percent tariff has been put into place on all steel and aluminum products coming into the United States (bad news for local brewers seeking cans), and he has hinted at placing a 10 percent tariff on goods coming from the European Union. In addition, he has also proposed a broader tariff on every single item that comes into the United States.
Tariffs have always served an important role in the US economy. Indeed, we have regularly used tariffs to protect our manufacturing industry, farmers, technology, and national security interests. However, past administrations have preferred to use tariffs with more precision. Unfortunately, the Trump Administration seems to want to use them as a tool not only to bolster the federal income, but to try and bully other nations into giving him what he wants.
Corporate America, routinely on President Trump’s side with most policies, has been outraged by the tariffs and has lobbied hard against them. The majority of mainstream economists agree that Trump’s use of tariffs will reignite inflation and slow economic growth in the US. The Wall Street Journal, which also typically sides with the president’s policies, called Trump’s tariff plan, “the dumbest trade war in history.”
Trump has called the word “tariff” the fourth most beautiful word in the dictionary behind “God,” “love,” and religion.” The problem is that if countries do what Trump wants to avoid tariffs, the United States can’t raise the revenue it needs. If Trump decides to implement the tariffs anyway, then countries have no incentive to come to the table and negotiate.
One of Trump’s talking points about tariffs is that we will match other countries dollar for dollar with tariffs, thus bringing trade into balance. However, putting tariffs into place has brought about retaliatory tariffs which have ignited a trade war. This trade war can hurt American businesses and consumers in a multitude of ways. So much for bringing prices down on day one.
The definition of the word tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and policy that taxes foreign products to encourage or safeguard domestic industry. Now, tariffs can bring in revenue to a country’s coffers, but most people have a uninformed view of the way tariffs work. When a small group of people were polled in New York City recently, 9 out of 10 people thought that the country exporting the goods paid the tariffs, when the exact opposite is actually the case. The tariff is paid by the business or entrepreneur bringing the goods into the country. Thus, it will be American businesses that actually foot the bill for these tariffs. A report was cited by the Harris campaign that showed Trump’s 20 percent universal tariff would cost a typical family nearly $4,000 a year.
This is where Trump’s policy of misdirection comes into play. He repeatedly insists that it is foreign countries that will pay the tariffs. This is patently false and he knows it. For someone who is supposed to be such a genius businessman and the self-proclaimed “tariff man,” he either surprisingly doesn’t know how tariffs work, or he’s a blatant liar. Fool or liar, you be the judge. I’m going to go with both being equally true.
His intentional instigation of an all-out trade war should be enough to make anyone stand up and take notice. If you decide that’s not enough for you though, all you have to do is look at the rest of his policies. His is an administration of greed and cruelty that we have never seen before in this country. I’m not even going to pretend that things will get better anytime soon. Things will most certainly get worse, especially for the most vulnerable of us. The time for action is now before Trump, Musk, and crew ignite an avalanche of chaos that will not be able to be repaired for generations to come.