Donald Trump still doesn’t know what a tariff is
On Monday, Donald Trump managed to demonstrate that he still doesn’t know what tariffs are – and in doing so, he made clear once again to his supporters that he has no intention of backing down from something he said fairly often: He plans to implement tariffs and lots of them – not just on manufacturing, but also on all imports that come from Canada and Mexico – despite the fact that the former is responsible for most of our lumber and the latter for much of the produce that we buy.
Far from the Trump campaign’s vague promises of lowering prices (something they were never really pressed on), these policies will raise prices significantly – and there’s already been some backlash not just from foreign governments, but from people who avidly backed Donald Trump for president just because they’re feeling nostalgic for what life was like in the years leading up to the COVID pandemic.
Much of Trump’s base is going to circumvent their way around why prices are skyrocketing – potentially even before he takes office – but the people who merely tolerated Trump because they think he’ll somehow bring prices down to what they were eight years ago are gradually realizing that Trump plans on following his promises through. The good news, for what little there is – is that the GOP is handing us the issue for 2026 and 2028 right out of the gate: The Trump sales tax. Get ready to say it and say it often as we fight Trump and the GOP.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making