Source: Notablog
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
“Trump declares: ‘I know what I’m doing.’ Whatever he’s doing, whatever game he is playing, Trump is talking out of both sides of his mouth. With one breath, he believes that the tariff is ‘the most beautiful word in the dictionary.’ This leads us to Position A: that tariffs will increase domestic manufacturing by insulating domestic producers from foreign competition, while punishing other countries for their ‘unfair’ trade practices. … Position A is tied to a nationalist conservative industrial policy, in which tariffs are just one aspect of a larger toolkit that allows Trump to protect domestic producers, while subsidizing those economic sectors hurt by his trade policies. That this weaponization of trade relations violates the most elementary principles of economics is beside the point. But there’s always Position B to fall back on: For Trump, tariffs are not an end in themselves. They are negotiating tools. Toward what end?” (05/05/25)