OPINION

A tariff for you. A tariff for you. A tariff for you.

Trump’s presidency kicks off with steep tariffs, market chaos and global backlash, despite lacking majority support. B Jay Cooper slams his economic logic as flimsy and fears looming fallout from retaliatory moves.

B. Jay Cooper

Apr 5, 2025 — 5 min read

F act: Donald J. Trump won the 2024 presidential election.

Fact: Trump won the popular vote with 49.8%.

Fact: Trump won the electoral vote 312-226.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutkin, one of the creators of the Trump Tariff Policy, was all over the airwaves touting Trump’s huge tariffs on other countries. In those interviews, Lutkin’s logic – in the face of crashing financial markets, stalled business planning and other effects of that policy – said the reason we should believe it’s going to work is to trust “Donald Trump to run the global economy.”

No economic logic, no rationale for the high tariffs, or explanation as to how Trump and his tariff brain trust came to the numbers to assess each country’s exports to us. Just trust Trump to run the global economy.

A few things:

– Trump’s approval rating is 43%, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll that was conducted March 21-23, or about a week before his tariff announcement.

– Once again, he won the popular vote with 49.8% of the vote, which means more than 50% of the country voted for someone else.

– Trump’s record of “running things” isn’t laced with huge successes. Just for a few examples: Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump Shuttle, goTrump.com, Trump Mortgage, Trump Vodka. None of those businesses were as complicated to run as the U.S. Government, by the way. Each business failed.

– His first term in office had some successes but also a massive failure when it came to dealing with the COVID pandemic.

Mr. Lutnick, my point is: He didn’t have majority trust from the country before he announced his tariffs. He doesn’t have majority trust now. Imagine what will happen in the next few weeks or months. Trump, who promised a lot of positive things would happen “on Day One,” like reduced grocery prices, lower gas prices, lower interest rates, an end to the Russia-Ukraine war has a lower approval rating in the Ipsos poll than he did before he took office.

These tariffs will raise the price of products and commodities most purchased by Trump’s base of voters. Not to mention the 401ks that millions are depending on to fund their retirements. And, likely, the laying off of thousands of workers, which has already begun.

Canada has already announced a 25 percent increase in its tariffs in response to the Trump/Lutkin increases. French President Macron has asked companies there to stop investing in the United States.

Trump, rather than resolving many issues early in his presidency (promises made, promises not-yet-kept), has put the world economy on the brink of – something, but not something positive according to economists across the spectrum.

The best rationale I’ve seen for the high (but not as high as they could have been) Trump Tariffs is that the Administration took the highest tariff a particular country charges us, and halved it. Not exactly highly researched economic data. A better explanation I saw was a not complicated addition/subtraction of our trade deficit with other countries and a percentage applied.

Some say it’s a negotiating tool. Trump has not said that. And it’s gonna be hard to sell that logic when dozens of countries have been slapped with high tariffs, including apparently one island that is home to only penguins. Playing chicken with one country at a time is one thing, playing it with most of the world is another thing.

Even right-wing voices, like the principled radio host Erick Erickson, are scrutinizing the president. Erickson called the tariffs “one of the largest tax increases on Americans and done by fiat. Just wow.”

It’s important to note that Erickson correctly pegged the tariffs as a tax increase on Americans, because we will pay for those tariffs, as we did when the Hawley-Smoot tariffs were adopted last century, as we did when the first Trump term imposed tariffs on other countries.

By the way, that 250 percent tariff Trump claims Canada charges us on dairy products? Trump negotiated that tariff the last time he was President. It was part of the USMCA (United States, Mexico, Canada) trade agreement he signed. And, that 250 percent is only charged after the U.S. exports more than a certain amount of goods to our northern neighbors. If we reach that amount, the agreed-to tariff kicks in. So far, we have never met the limit, thus never been charged the tax.

Of all the significant actions Trump has taken so far, the vast majority are Executive Orders, not legislation passed by Congress.

Executive Orders, if upheld if challenged in the courts, are only good until the next President is elected. Evidenced by Trump’s show of negating many Biden Executive Orders.

Trump’s deportation policies, too, are being carried out by Executive Order, many of which are being challenged in the courts literally as we speak. The President apparently is counting on the fact that he appointed three of the Supreme Court judges to translate into victories for him when and if cases reach the highest court. Not a sure thing.

And we haven’t even mentioned yet that Elon Musk has ordered the firing of tens of thousands of federal employees without much due process, if any. Plus, he is winding down agencies and programs passed by Congress, meaning Congress should be approving their eliminations. But the Too Afraid of Trump Caucus in both houses of Congress isn’t pushing back on him.

In the meantime, Trump is also keeping his promises of “retribution” as he goes after federal departments, judges, universities, political opponents and others he deems his enemies. He is weaponizing the government to go after those he claims weaponized the government against him.

If the prior Administration unlawfully went after Trump, it should have been stopped and shouldn’t have gotten away with it. But the courts backed it up. Laws were followed and processes were followed.

Fair is fair, but when the law is concerned, the law is the law.