≡ Menu

The Essence of Protectionism Is Here Unwittingly Revealed by a Trump Administration Official

Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal:

Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish brags about the Trump administration granting to American consumers valuable exemptions from that administration’s own tariffs (Letters, Oct. 31). Mr. Gerrish obviously expects the American public to applaud and thank the Trump administration for this alleged magnanimity.

What gall.

No American owes the Trump administration any more applause and thanks for these “exemptions” than that American would owe to a gang of armed robbers who, in the course of committing their theft, “exempts” some of their victim’s pocket change from the property that they steal.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030

Comments