Enthusiasm for President Trump’s tariff plans at WorldNetDaily started early with its Trump-sycophant columnists. Rachel Alexander whined in her Feb. 3 column that “the left” is demonizing them:
The left is gleefully predicting that Trump’s tariffs against nations that don’t play fair will exacerbate the high costs of goods and services caused by rampant inflation under the Biden administration. Superficially, it’s an easy argument to make – if you increase the cost of goods coming from other countries through tariffs, American consumers will have to pay more. So the myth is gaining traction. But the truth is practically the opposite.
Joe Biden’s own treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, confirmed last year that tariffs do not raise prices on goods and services, noting, “I don’t believe that American consumers will see any meaningful increase in the prices that they face.”
Democrats and their comrades in the MSM conveniently leave out that Biden extended Trump’s China tariffs. Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said they were “all about protecting American workers, protecting American businesses.” The China tariffs ultimately decreased Chinese exports to the U.S. by 25% and reduced the deficit with China by 35%.
The Democrats’ superficial criticism ignores Econ 101 and the reasons for tariffs in the first place. Trump wants to implement them in order to coerce other countries to level the playing field with the U.S., which will contribute to bringing prices down everywhere as countries are forced to change their unfair trade practices to get the tariffs removed.
[…]No one really believes Trump is going to make the high cost of goods even worse. The reason the left gets so much traction with many of its crazy positions on issues is because they’re able to take a superficial view on them with short catchy sound bites that sell easily to the American public. Until the right can figure out a way around this, they’ll continue to hold sway over Americans with outrageous views.
Wayne Allyn Root condescendingly huffed in his Feb. 7 column that “idiots and fools” were criticizing the tariffs:
I started to write on Sunday night at midnight that now is not the time to sell. Now is the time to buy, buy and buy some more of U.S. investments – stocks, Bitcoin, gold, energy, real estate. Buy it all. Because Trump is about to win these “trade wars” quickly and make America prosperous again.
And secure the border to save our children’s lives in the bargain.
I wrote about half the commentary and then went to bed. I planned to get up early on Monday morning to finish it. But before I could finish this column, in a matter of hours, Trump has already won trade wars all over the world. Just like that. In a matter of hours.
That’s how it works when you hold all the cards!
Democrats and RINO Republicans are so stupid, foolish and cowardly that they have never understood America holds all the cards. We are the economic elephant in any room. We buy all the world’s goods. We are the richest nation in the world – by a mile. We buy everything from everyone.
What’s a business without customers? The answer is BANKRUPT.
Without American consumers buying, the whole world goes broke. We hold all the cards. We are the bully on Broad Street.
What part of that don’t you understand?
[…]So, let me educate you about Trump’s tariffs. It’s very simple.
Trump is asking countries around the world to play nice, secure our border, take back their citizens who illegally broke into our country and stop taking advantage of our country economically. They can cooperate, or if not, they can commit economic suicide. It’s that simple.
Shockingly, WND let a dissenting opinion appear in the form of a Feb. 10 column by Roger Koopman:
Some bad ideas, despite centuries of consistently negative consequences, come back to repeatedly haunt the human race. The economic warfare of “protective” tariffs is one such bad idea that belongs in the dustbin of history, yet President Trump has given it a veneer of patriotic polish, while trotting out all the tired pro-tariff cliches that have been proven so wrong for so long.
When a bad idea appears to have eternal life, you can bet its life support is coming from two major factors: 1) widely accepted myth and 2) powerful special interests.
The tariff myths are many, but the least obvious, and most pervasive, is the belief that tariffs are assessments levied against foreign countries, their producers and their foreign-made goods. In truth, foreign producers aren’t the ones who bear most of the direct cost. Who foots the bill for an American tariff on a foreign good? You do. It is in essence a consumer tax that lands squarely on your family budget, and reduces the buying power of every American’s wages. You are forced to either pay the extra sticker price of the foreign good or the higher cost of the “protected” American product.
When the tariffs started going into effect, Bob Unruh downplayed the financial carnage in an April 3 article by insisting it was just “short-term”:
President Donald Trump’s campaign to reach fair trade deals with the international community, as expected, hit American consumers with “short-term” pain this week, as stocks measured by the S&P 500, Nasdaq and the Dow Jones Industrial Average all bumped down by a couple of points on the release of his tariff plan.
Trump’s extensive tariff agenda includes tariffs for foreign goods imported into the United States that align with tariffs those nations charge for American goods delivered to their citizens.
Analysts have confirmed that the short-term pain is real, but the plan is for the end result to be a better market for American products and American consumers.
WND surprisingly allowed another critique of Trump’s tariffs in an April 5 column by Josh Hammer:
Truth be told, we may not know the full effects for years. But already, there have been at least some positive signs that Trump’s approach is working. In February, Apple – the largest company in the world by market capitalization – announced it would invest $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years. Johnson & Johnson has pledged $55 billion in U.S. investment, Nvidia allegedly plans to invest “several hundred billion” dollars in electronics manufacturing. Other recent examples abound, and we should expect the trend to continue.
That is not to say that all is fine with the Trump tariff rollout, though. The tariffs unveiled thus far in this second term, culminating in Wednesday’s “Liberation Day” Rose Garden speech, are directionally correct but markedly over-inclusive. There is a tremendous difference between slapping punitive tariffs on China and Canada, for example. It is emphatically the case that China has robbed America every which way for decades, and we are far too economically dependent on the nation that is also our top geopolitical threat this century. But what is the issue with our friendly northerly neighbor, exactly? If anything, Trump’s tariffs on Canada – combined with the recurrent reckless talk of annexation – seem to have caused the political collapse of Canada’s Conservative Party on the precipice of a crucial national election.
There is also the issue of consistency. The administration’s tariff rollout has given off the distinct impression of being done in a scattershot, shoot-from-the-hip manner. Markets value stability and predictability – and it is likely the instability or unpredictability of the tariff policy, even more so than the tariffs themselves, that has spooked so many on Wall Street.
Unruh spun Trump’s immediate retreat on most of his planned tariffs in an April 9 article:
President Donald Trump has paused a new surge in higher tariffs for at least 75 nations who did not “retaliate” against his campaign to level the trading playing field for American companies and consumers, announcing a 90-day reprieve from those costs.
But for a combative China, which responded with 84% tariffs to Trump’s campaign for fairness for Americans in international trading, he exploded the rate that Chinese companies will be charged for shipping goods into America to 125%.
Roughly, that would mean a Chinese car that costs $40,000 would be delivered into the United States for an estimated $90,000.
[…]White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke to reporters after the president’s announcement, as Leavitt chided the media for “clearly missing the Art of the Deal.”
Root returned for more pro-tariff rah-rah in his April 12 column:
The stock market is volatile and declining. But the sky isn’t falling.
First, the stock market isn’t “the U.S. economy.” Main Street is more important than Wall Street.
Because of Trump, after only two months in office, Main Street is on the rebound from the terrible Biden economy. Inflation on key items is down. Jobs are up – smashing expectations. Manufacturing jobs are way up. And factory orders are up. The media conveniently forgets to tell you all of that.
Trump has also convinced foreign countries and companies to invest trillions of dollars into the U.S. economy. The media forgets to mention that one, too.
Back to stocks. The stock market is down dramatically – for the moment. But that’s today – a blip in time. This is only the first inning of a nine-inning game.
And why is it down? Because most of the biggest players on Wall Street are either on China’s payroll or make a fortune selling their products in China. Either way, they’re not on the side of the great American middle class, they’re not on Trump’s side, and they’re not on America’s side.
If Trump wins these trade wars and gets major concessions out of 95% of these countries – and the U.S. economy booms, and millions of jobs are created, and manufacturing comes back to the U.S. – stocks will boom to all-time highs and President Trump will be a hero.
[…]Here is what Trump’s critics don’t understand about his tariffs:
1. Trump is the greatest visionary in history. He sees tariffs as the only way to rearrange the world economic order and make America the dominant economy in the world for decades to come. He knows “no pain, no gain.” This had to happen. It will cause pain and losses in the short term, but long term, it will make America great again. That’s why he was elected.
2. Trump is the greatest risk-taker of all time. He is willing to gamble his legacy on what he knows is the right thing to do. He’s swinging for the fences. Trump understands this is the only way to guarantee America’s prosperity and economic dominance over China long term.
3. Lastly, Trump is the greatest negotiator of all time. He knows you have to aim high (to the point of critics calling you crazy and ridiculous) to get what you want.
That’s exactly what Trump is doing here.
Root doesn’t mention that Trump is taking risks with other people’s lives and livelihoods.
Joe Kovacs gave Trump space to whine about criticism of his tariffs in an April 13 article:
President Donald Trump on Sunday took to social media to affirm “nobody is getting off the hook” when it comes to trade imbalances with the United States, as he blamed the national news media for inaccurate reporting.
“NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook’ for the unfair Trade Balances, and Non Monetary Tariff Barriers, that other Countries have used against us, especially not China which, by far, treats us the worst!” Trump exclaimed on Truth Social. “There was no Tariff ‘exception’ announced on Friday.”
“These products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket.’ The Fake News knows this, but refuses to report it.
“We are taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations.
Kovacs cited no specific allegation of inaccurate media reporting Trump made regarding his tariffs.