Part of it, of course, is that he sees import substitution as a way of recreating the economy of the fifties–one dominated by burly men working in factories and construction. But the other part is just as important. Trump thinks tariffs will give him a slush fund to reward his friends and punish his enemies.
Farmers are the most obvious example. Many of them became wards of the state when the Chinese retaliated against the tariffs in Trump’s first term. Did that bother them? The polls should tell you the answer to that one.
It isn’t just farmers. The wealthy will probably gain from income tax cuts funded by the tariffs; in fact, Trump has thrown out the possibility of getting rid of income tax altogether. Some portion of the slush fund could be used to bail out Social Security, thereby helping Trump’s elderly constituents. And so on.
Two observations are pertinent here. First, if you’re a company from a blue state that is losing sales abroad as a result of retaliation against the tariffs, don’t expect any help from Trump. Second, turning the complex American economy into a Putinesque neo-feudal system run from the top would be very difficult, but this would be a giant step in that direction.
The losers in this scheme will be export-driven businesses, consumers, the poor, and the middle class. They will pay significantly higher prices and get nothing in return.
It’s hard to believe that the American public supports this agenda. They just don’t know about it yet. Biden needs to make them aware.