Here’s another letter to my long-time “proud Trump man” correspondent, Nolan McKinney.
Mr. McKinney:
You and many of the commenters on Phil Gramm’s and my piece in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal – a piece documenting that American voters throughout history haven’t been kind to political parties that impose steep tariff hikes – upbraid us for (in your words) “refusing to see Trump using tariffs to get governments to the bargaining table to lower tariffs.”
Several different features of Trump’s tariff ‘policy’ and pronouncements make your interpretation of Trump’s motives specious, including the fact that Trump refuses to use an existing bargaining table – the one at the WTO – that has long been in place for that very purpose.
But just this morning Trump provided yet more proof that he’s a dyed-in-the-wool protectionist with no interest in promoting free trade globally. His just-announced threat to raise tariffs on Apple products isn’t aimed at other governments but, rather, at a private American company for the purpose of bullying that company into doing more of its production in the U.S.
You and other people who, with all due respect, gullibly swallowed the line, peddled especially by Treasury secretary Bessent, that Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs are really an ingenious bargaining tool to pressure other government to reduce trade barriers surely must now finally see that that line is ridiculous.
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
