The Felon's Flawed Tariff Policies

Today many of the Felon's tariffs go into effect, including 35% tariffs against Canada.  The international stock and financial markets have dropped in recognition of how bad these tariffs will be for the global economy.  And, of course, the arbitrary tariffs will do nothing for most American consumers since consumer prices will rise and long time allies will feel betrayed and realize America cannot be trusted with a madman in the White House and a GOP controlled Congress which will do nothing to assert its legal authority over tariffs. Indeed, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals gave a frosty reception to the Felon's claimed authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act because in truth, there is no emergency justifying the Felon's policies - only the Felon's desire to bully other nations and and force they to prostitute themselves to him as Republicans up and down political offices have done.  Indeed, there is nothing "America First" - a phrase that has an ugly history - about the tariffs.  Canada is pushing ahead with switching trading partners and the European Union is being pushed into the waiting arms of China.  A  piece in Atlantic looks at the Felon's warped trade policies that will harm Americans and likely weaken the nation over all.  Here are excepts:

When Trump began his political career, he said he would put “America First,” rather than using American power to enforce values overseas. Wars to fight repressive autocrats were foolish ways to burn cash and squander American lives. The promotion of human rights and democracy were soft-headed, bleeding-heart causes. Trump, a man of business, was going to look out for the bottom line without getting tangled up in high-minded crusades. Now that’s exactly what he’s doing: using trade as a way to make grand statements about values—his own, if not America’s.

This is troubling on legal, moral, and diplomatic levels. The Constitution specifically delegates the power to levy tariffs to Congress, but legislators have delegated some of that capacity to the president. Trump has invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which allows him to impose tariffs in response to an “unusual and extraordinary threat,” on the basis that Congress cannot act quickly enough. This use of the law is, as Conor Friedersdorf and Ilya Somin wrote in The Atlantic in May, absurd.

Understanding why Trump would be sensitive about Bolsonaro’s prosecution, which stems from Bolsonaro’s attempt to cling to power after losing the 2022 election, is not difficult—the parallels between the two have been often noted—but that doesn’t make it a threat to the United States, much less an “unusual and extraordinary” one. Likewise, Canadian recognition of a Palestinian state is unwelcome news for Trump’s close alliance with Israel, but it poses no obvious security or economic danger to the U.S. A Congress or Supreme Court interested in limiting presidential power could seize on these statements to arrest Trump’s trade war, but these are not the legislators or justices we have.

Setting aside the legal problems, Trump’s statements about Brazil and Canada represent an abandonment of the realpolitik approach he once promised. Even if Carney were to back down on Palestinian statehood, or Brazil to call off Bolsonaro’s prosecution, the United States wouldn’t see any economic gain. Trump is purely using American economic might to achieve noneconomic goals.

Previous presidents have frequently used U.S. economic hegemony to further national goals—or, less charitably, interfered in the domestic affairs of other sovereign nations. But no one needs to accept any nihilistic false equivalences. Trump wrote in a July 9 letter to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva that the case against Bolsonaro was “an international disgrace” and (naturally) a “Witch Hunt.” Although the U.S. has taken steps to isolate repressive governments, Trump’s attempts to bail out Bolsonaro are nothing of the sort. The U.S. can’t with a straight face argue that charging Bolsonaro is improper, and it can’t accuse Brazil of convicting him in a kangaroo court, because no trial has yet been held.

[S]lapping tariffs on Canada for a symbolic decision such as this [recognizing Palestine] seems unlikely to dissuade Carney or do anything beyond further stoking nascent Canadian nationalism.

This is not the only way in which Trump’s blunt wielding of tariffs is likely to backfire on the United States. Consumers in the U.S. will pay higher prices, and overseas, Jerusalem Demsas warned in April, “the credibility of the nation’s promises, its treaties, its agreements, and even its basic rationality has evaporated in just weeks.” But it’s not just trust with foreign countries that the president has betrayed. It’s the pact he made with voters. Trump promised voters an “America First” approach. Instead, they’re getting a “Bolsonaro and Netanyahu First” government.