We’re on the other side with Hamilton and Jefferson again. Let’s listen in!
J: What’s wrong, Alex? You seem really down again.
H: It’s those idiotic Trump tariffs. He’s doing everything he can to ruin our country.
J: I don’t get it. You supported tariffs when you were in power. Why the change?
H: Tariffs can be justified in the name of national security or when you’re trying to protect vital infant industries from unfair foreign competition. In addition, tariffs were one of the few practical ways to fund the government in the 18th century. Trump’s tariffs don’t have any of those justifications.
J: True. It’s hard to know what he’s trying to accomplish. And he keeps changing them. It looks like he just wants to be at the center of the universe.
H: I read somewhere that he just likes tariffs, and that everyone around him is trying to reverse engineer them to make sense. That’s about as plausible an explanation as any.
J: I certainly can’t figure it out. It looks like he’s trying to rebuild the economy of the 1950s. Why stop there? Why not go back to our day, like the Supreme Court?
H: Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, the tariffs are your fault.
J: Me? I was a free trader from day one. I believed in low taxes and minimal government. Tariffs aren’t consistent with that.
H: But you were a populist, just like Trump. And the tariffs are just a counterproductive exercise in playing to the gallery.
J: By the standards of the day, I was a left-wing populist, not a right-winger like Trump. And Trump isn’t really a populist. He just plays one on TV while he cuts taxes and regulations for big shots. You would appreciate that.
H: Not really. We can discuss that some other time. But you’ve convinced me for now. This is just on Trump and the fools that voted for him. God only knows where it ends, but it won’t be good.
J: Let’s leave it at that.