On Our "Virtual Route 66" (Weekly Edition): A Perspective on the Trump Tariffs

 

An Economic War Based on Lies

The president just launched a major worldwide economic war for no real reason, and he and his allies cooked up bogus numbers to justify their unprovoked aggression.

Daniel Larison Apr 3

Trump’s massive escalation of his trade war was far worse than expected. The president just launched a major worldwide economic war for no real reason, and he and his allies cooked up bogus numbers to justify their unprovoked aggression. It is an economic war based on lies.

Many news reports have referred to these tariffs as reciprocal because that is what the administration calls them, but there is nothing reciprocal about any of this. The countries targeted with significantly higher tariffs have generally low tariffs on American goods. Trump’s trade war is as far from tariff reciprocity as it is possible to get.

The president has arbitrarily imposed one of the largest tax increases in American history. As Americans realize what he has done and how much it is costing them, the political backlash will likely be severe. If there is any good news in all of this insanity, it is that Trump has probably destroyed his presidency in just the first three months of the new term.

There isn’t much point in trying to understand why the president has chosen to wreck the economy, but there are some explanations we can dismiss. This has nothing to do with making America wealthier or stronger. There is no long-term strategy at work here. The president chose to indulge his bizarre delusions about economics, and he seems indifferent to the destruction it will cause.

As far as I can tell, Trump just wants to cause widespread harm. It is similar to his frequent use of broad sanctions. It doesn’t matter to him if these coercive measures achieve anything. He just wants to inflict pain on others to show that he has power. The more pain he can inflict, the more he enjoys it.

America’s trading partners will be well within their rights to retaliate in self-defense, and Trump has left them no choice. China and the EU have already promised to take countermeasures. Many analysts assumed or maybe just hoped that Trump was engaged in some elaborate bluff to extract concessions on this or that issue, but that was giving him far too much credit. There was no way for other countries to avoid the trade war because there was nothing they could have given that would have satisfied Trump. There is also nothing that they can do now to convince Trump to back off except to make him feel some of the pain that he is dealing out. It is going to be a pointless destructive fight that leaves everyone worse off than before.

This attack on our trading partners will likely do significant possibly irreparable damage to our relations with many other countries. When the U.S. lashes out at other countries and directly threatens their prosperity and interests, it is making new enemies all around the globe. The U.S. is torching the goodwill and trust that it has built up with dozens of countries over decades, and it will be difficult to get that back once it is gone.

We can’t know for sure what the political effects of this economic war will be, but sharp economic downturns often undermine international peace and security. Intensified economic warfare with China may not lead to armed conflict, but it is sure to ratchet up tensions even further to the detriment of both countries. It comes as no surprise that Trump’s legacy will be creating a less stable, more dangerous world.

Economic warfare is warfare. It can do more damage than military action, and it attacks the entire population. Trump’s economic war punishes the rest of the world and the American people at the same time. It is a colossal self-inflicted disaster, and it will leave our country poorer, weaker, and more isolated than it has been in a long time.