Trump’s Bewildering Error on the Politics of Trade
Whatever you think of the president’s policies, he once deserved credit for his tactical talent and keen understanding of what voters want. These days, not so much.
They didn’t ask him to wreck the economy before rebuilding it.
Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Voters’ exhaustion with the Democratic Party, and the party’s exhaustion with itself, go far to explain Donald Trump’s victory last November. The president saw the weaknesses and attacked them. He’s instinctively outrageous and likes nothing better than driving his opponents crazy — but his provocations usually have an intelligible political purpose. And they worked. Tactically speaking, he knows what he’s doing.
Or so I thought. Attacking government payrolls as recklessly as DOGE is now attempting might be initially popular with much of Trump’s base, but the risks to innocent bystanders, and the political damage that might ensue, are obvious. Worse, his second-term trade policy, far more radical than before, threatens the economy with an almighty structural shock. Voters didn’t ask him to wreck the economy before rebuilding it. His tariffs aren’t that popular at the outset. Before long they’ll be detested. He’ll get the same blowback over higher prices that plagued the Biden administration, and he’ll have far fewer excuses.