Trump’s Tariff War a Mean Spirited Bust So Far, but It Could Get Worse

Editorial, April 19, 2025

Initially Trump used an executive order to impose high tariffs derived from a bizarre calculation on more than one hundred nations including all of Asia, most of Africa, our European allies, and China.  This was, in essence, a declaration of war on the world.   It was also the kickoff of a war on the middle and working class of the United States. It was a unilateral declaration of war without congressional or popular support. After all, who would pay for these tariffs?

Tariffs, in their most positive use, provide room for growing domestic industries to expand.  For tariffs to work, domestic fledgling manufacturing initiatives must be nurtured and fed during the period when competition is blocked.  This is not happening in the United States where manufacturing has been outsourced for 50 years.  It is either absent or embedded in international supply chains.

Like sanctions, the tariffs attack  the countries targeted.  They also raise the cost of goods sold here in the U.S,.  particularly Inexpensive goods from Asia, which, dominate U.S. retail for clothes and household goods.  They further impoverish poor people and poor countries.

Trump said that he would use these tariffs, many of them around 50% to “negotiate” with the targeted countries for political agendas.   He says that the developing nations “owe” us.   When questioned, he said that these smaller countries were calling him in great numbers to ‘negotiate’. What else could they do?

Trump had earlier targeted Mexico and Canada with similar tariffs.    Canada provides, among other goods, a high percentage of the wood necessary for construction to the U.S.  During Covid the Canadian border was closed, leading to several hundred percent hikes in the price of basic building materials necessary to build a house.  Real Estate prices skyrocketed, and they haven’t come down even though the price of lumber has.  Mexico provides the majority of the fresh fruits and vegetables available in your supermarkets during the winter.

Wall Street, an apparently unexpected victim of these tariffs, recoiled and the stock market plummeted.   Trump’s friends in New York called and complained bitterly. Japan, sold all of their U.S. Bonds.  Trump has “paused” these tariffs while “negotiations” take place.  He put a 90 day pause on all the tariffs except those on China.   In response, Outraged Chinese officials slapped a 125% tariff on all US goods.  Now Apple Execs were on the phone.   Trump exempted electronics from China’s tariff regimen, though initially they were a primary target.

Our European allies were also outraged and indignant.   We are Europe’s main customer.   The economies of our main allies in Europe, already struggling due to the Ukraine war, will be devastated by Trump Tariffs.  Like Sanctions which target our enemies, the costs of tariffs are difficult to predict, but they will surely harm our European ‘allies’.  What will they do, once they see they have been betrayed?

If these tariffs are finally enacted,  U.S. consumers in the the middle and working class will be the main victims.  Other countries can rearrange their trade partners and find new markets.  BRICS and The Shanghai Cooperation Organization are leading the way.  We will have nowhere to turn.  US tariffs will become a burden, and we will finally fall out of the global supply chains.  Manufacturing will be slow to revive as jobs are lost, government subsidies and social safety nets disappear and prices continue to rise driving  Inflation, a recession or even a depression.

The paused tariffs will be forgotten, then when enacted, they will act as silent killers in the domestic economy, driving inflation and setting off a downward cycle of consumer strangulation and job loss.

Whether or not these extravagant tariffs are enacted, who will rely on the U.S. as a major trade partner?  Who will continue to invest in the U.S. dollar as a refuge from unstable markets?

The Trump administration’s disregard for the welfare of the majority of people in the United States is a betrayal.  The Trump administration’s attack on our poorest trade partners in the global south is despicable.

The foolish and avaricious policies of the Trump administration  threaten to create an expanding recession, even a depression in the US economy, and even in the global economy.  You cannot increase the domestic economic base by aggression and ‘taking’ from others, but only through investment in domestic construction, manufacturing and markets.