Trump Voters Stand by Their Man as He Wrecks Their Jobs
In Poplar Bluff, Missouri, support for Trump's tariffs is about tribalism more than anything else. That's dangerous and scary.
In Poplar Bluff, Missouri, support for Trump's tariffs is about tribalism more than anything else. That's dangerous and scary.
Trump's tariffs are just part of the problem.
Automakers, motorcycle manufacturers, the stock market, and even the White House's own analyses are telling Trump to change course.
The unseen costs of the Trump administration's bellicose trade policy matter too.
"It's all working out great," Trump said in South Carolina. Few people seem to agree with that assessment.
The E.U. retaliated against Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs. Now, whiskey drinkers will pay the price.
One government intervention into the economy begets another, and American businesses are caught in the chaos. Good and easy to win? Not so much.
It can do that because it's a global brand, but other businesses aren't as lucky. And workers everywhere stand to lose.
Commodities are falling across the board, but soybean farmers are taking the brunt. What's happening in Iowa is the perfect demonstration of why trade works.
Prices for steel, washing machines, and lumber spiked after Trump imposed tariffs on them. This time it will be different, right?
Another week, another bumbling trade declaration from the president.
June 12 was not a good day for free-market constitutionalism in the modern GOP.
It's a damned shame that he doesn't seem to really believe in it.
The outgoing senator wants to require congressional approval for "national security" tariffs, while the low-polling president taunts Flake about his low poll numbers.
The GOP betrays its principles for the sake of political expediency.
I mean, sure, that makes as much sense as any other reason.
Extending the justification would allow government intervention into just about anything.
Via trade and immigration restrictions, the president is completing the GOP's conversion to the party of economic micro-management.
Imports improve the economy and benefit the country.
And if other countries respond with similar tariffs, the U.S. could lose more than 600,000 manufacturing jobs.
Everything from preparations through recovery will be more expensive, thanks to tariffs on steel, aluminum, and timber.
Don't believe the administration's claim that this will hurt China.
If you tax something, you get less of it, and Trump's tariffs are a tax on making things-including cans, kegs, and the beer that goes into them.
Trump can impose car tariffs only by stretching the meaning of "national security" beyond recognition.
And it's cruel to tell people that government policy can reverse the decline.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says Trump administration is withdrawing plan to impose 25 percent tariffs on $150 billion of Chinese imports.
Trump wants tariffs on 1,300 Chinese-made goods. Dozens of American businessmen and women are in Washington this week to explain why that's an awful idea.
"We should buy from them what they're good at; we should sell to them what we're good at," says Gary Cohn, who left the White House in March.
The Donald is more like The Gipper on trade policy than you think. And not in a good way.
The president's aggressive but rudderless trade policy is watering the swamp.
Trump talks about wanting to reduce our trade deficit with China, but using tariffs to do it might jeopardize America's trade surplus in agriculture.
We restrict trade to punish our enemies. Why would we do the same to ourselves?
Reason editors rate the White House Correspondents Dinner, Trump's nuclear politics, the optics of political summits, and the resuscitation of Zora Neale Hurston.
But working-class identity politics threaten to ruin everything.
"He's going to be a one-term president, plain and simple."
It doesn't matter if those to whom you sell goods or labor are not the same as those from whom you buy these things. The same goes for America.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he's "nervous" about getting into a global trade war. Here's what he could do to prevent one.
And 1,300 more that will make you scratch your head.
"No one wins in these tit-for-tat trade disputes, least of all the farmers and the consumers."
"Those are traumatic increases. They are shocks to our system," says Mike Schmitt, CEO of The Metalworking Group, an Ohio-based manufacturer.
The American people will suffer more than the moguls in the steel industry will benefit.
A pro-tariff organization projects the best-case scenario for tariffs, and it still ends up looking pretty bad.
"There's not a day on the farm when a farmer doesn't touch steel," says Rep. David Young. And all that steel is about to get more expensive.
Steel tariffs are likely to make prices rise further, particularly in markets where housing demand is already outpacing supply.