… is from page 311 of Richard Salsman’s 2021 book, Where Have All the Capitalists Gone?:
By first defining America’s trade gains as “losses” and then pledging to curb or end them, Trump effectively pledges to terminate gains…. Since Trump defends an actual gain (net imports) as a “loss” for Americans, he’s equally comfortable with the illogic of defining an actual loss (higher tariffs on Americans) as a supposed “gain” for Americans.
DBx: Indeed.
If Trump were correct in his belief that the people of the nation are necessarily made poorer by a net inflow of imports over exports, when running his personal affairs he’d sell as much stuff as possible, rake in as much cash as possible, stuff this cash into vaults, and live like a pauper. He’d be – by his mercantilist lights – rich. And he’d suppose that all those individuals and firms that he’d ingeniously convinced to take his stuff in exchange for cash are suckers that he’d out-dueled with this brilliant art of dealing.
The very fact that Trump chooses not to live like a pauper is itself sufficient proof that he doesn’t really believe – or, more likely, that he doesn’t understand – his many pronouncements about trade.
