The WSJ calls this “one of the dumbest trade wars in history” — I won't argue with that (UPDATED)

/

Trump imposes tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China: 'National emergency'

On the same day, Trump told reporters the U.S. may also increase tariffs on imports from the European Union, arguing the tariffs would make the U.S. "very rich and very strong." 

The WSJ is opposed:

President Trump will fire his first tariff salvo on Saturday against those notorious American adversaries . . . Mexico and Canada. They’ll get hit with a 25% border tax, while China, a real adversary, will endure 10%. This reminds us of the old Bernard Lewis joke that it’s risky to be America’s enemy but it can be fatal to be its friend.

Leaving China aside, Mr. Trump’s justification for this economic assault on the neighbors makes no sense. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says they’ve “enabled illegal drugs to pour into America.” But drugs have flowed into the U.S. for decades, and will continue to do so as long as Americans keep using them. Neither country can stop it.

Drugs may be an excuse since Mr. Trump has made clear he likes tariffs for their own sake. “We don’t need the products that they have,” Mr. Trump said on Thursday. “We have all the oil you need. We have all the trees you need, meaning the lumber.”

Mr. Trump sometimes sounds as if the U.S. shouldn’t import anything at all, that America can be a perfectly closed economy making everything at home. This is called autarky, and it isn’t the world we live in, or one that we should want to live in, as Mr. Trump may soon find out.

Take the U.S. auto industry, which is really a North American industry because supply chains in the three countries are highly integrated. In 2024 Canada supplied almost 13% of U.S. imports of auto parts and Mexico nearly 42%. Industry experts say a vehicle made on the continent goes back and forth across borders a half dozen times or more, as companies source components and add value in the most cost-effective ways.

…. “Maybe Mr. Trump will claim victory and pull back if he wins some token concessions. But if a North American trade war persists, it will qualify as one of the dumbest in history.”

Tariffs intended to pressure trading partners to lower their own and not penalize US goods might make sense, but what is Canada supposed to do to change American drug users’ habits? And Mexico barely has a functionig government — hurting its — our, actually — car industry will help Mexicans wres control of the country from the cartels, how?

So those are our “friends; why is our enemy China to be treated so much better than Canada?

The other issue here is Trump’s declaration of a “national emergency” to bypass the legislative branch and enact these tariffs unilaterally. The power to impose by fiat what cannot be passed by Congress has always tempted the man in the executive office, but these declarations seem to be increasingly frequent these past couple of decades. From opening the borders to closing down the country, from simply erasing $100 billion in student debt, to, today, imposing 25% tariffs on former allies; in the past, these actions wouldn’t have been taken merely on the command of a single man; today, if Congress won’t act, the president will. That’s not progress.

Hell, even Herbert Hoover had to get Congress to enact that other contender for stupidest trade war, the Smoot-Hawley Act; yiu remember Smoot-Hawley, don’t you? Anybody? Anyone? Bueller?

UPDATE: Amy Curtis has thoughts on executive orders

It would be much easier, and probably more legally sound, to have Congress pass legislation addressing foreign aid and the USAID. I understand that the process will take time and political capital Trump and Republicans may not want to spend.

To that end, EOs can be used as stop gaps or to address issues of immediate need and urgency, and that's fine.

As we've seen in the last several administrations, almost all of the EOs Trump signed on his first day in office will be undone on January 20, 2029, if a Democrat is elected to the White House.

No legislation is written in stone. Some laws are harder to repeal and amend than others, but it can (and has) been done; it at least requires effort to change, repeal, or introduce new legislation that is absent in EOs. 

Today, for example, it is the official policy of the U.S. government that there are only two genders.

Four years from now, hypothetical President Gavin Newsom or Gretchen Whitmer could scrap that EO and say there are 47 of them instead.

It's the power and privilege that comes with the presidency. Which is why it should be wielded with prudence and an eye towards lasting legislation.

For the sake of the republic, we need to stop using issues like immigration, gender ideology, and foreign aid as political footballs to be punted back and forth, their future wholly dependent on who is occupying the Oval Office. It creates an uncertainty that is unsustainable and adds unnecessary tensions to America's political climate.

The fact we are having this debate at all demonstrates the importance of returning Congress to its role as legislators so they can transform EOs into laws that will make it more challenging for future administrations to undo.

Thus far, Donald Trump has done good work in his second term. I'd like to see it last beyond his final day in office.

UPDATE II — a clarification

I have no objection to retaliatory tariffs that are designed to force other countries to play fair — sauce for the goose, and all that — what I don’t like about this latest tax plan, besides it being imposed by executive fiat, is that it’s not intended to force Canada and Mexico to drop their tariff rates to match ours, but instead is demanding that they limit the illegal export of drugs into the U.S. Maybe border controls can be tightened, and perhaps the two countries can fund a “Just Say No to Drugs” campaign for U.S. school children that will kill the demand for fentanyl among sixth graders, but otherwise, what’s the point?

On the other hand, if we really want to increase our tariffs, here’s a ripe target: