In my latest essay for AIER, I explain what would happen were Trump to apply to Mar-a-Lago the same economic ideas and policies about trade that he’s applying to the United States economy. This little tale, while fictional about Mar-a-Lago, is quite factual about the destructive consequences that Trump’s twisted and wrongheaded ideas about trade would deliver to Mar-a-Lago – and what they would deliver to America.
Here’s my conclusion (but do read the whole story):
If the above tale sounds fantastically unrealistic, that’s because it is. No one – literally no one, rich or poor, not even Donald Trump – would even think about attempting to conduct his or her household’s economic affairs as described above. And yet, Trump is actually trying to conduct America’s economic affairs in a similar way. The economic ‘logic,’ such as it is, that motivates his invocation of emergency powers to impose tariffs rests on Trump’s belief that U.S. goods trade deficits with individual countries is an economic emergency, and evidence that foreign exporters or governments have long gotten away with economically ripping America off.
If it would make economic sense for Trump to run Mar-a-Lago in the fantastical way portrayed above, then Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs might make economic sense for America. But if it makes no sense – if it is downright crazy – for Trump to run Mar-a-Lago as described above, then his “Liberation Day” tariffs are the height of economic insanity. And they are.
