James Bovard and Trump's tariffs

There is a huge danger.  If you look at Trump's trade policy, it's just turning back the clock to President McKinley.  I don't know why anybody would think that's a good idea.  People forget the devastation from McKinley's tariffs, how it helped spur the Spanish-American War, how it left the U.S. with control of the Philippines and thereby helped drag us into World War II.  There were so many follies...  

The Trump policy makers seem to think that you can put a 10% tariff on bananas and somehow it's not going to have an adverse effect on consumers and everything else.  It's like that they have no idea.  Trump likes to talk about the art of the deal, but he doesn't have a magic wand.  If you look at his first term, at the devastation he inflicted on American agriculture, with his trade wars and how it boosted dependency.  People forget, in the 2020 election, Trump tried to buy a lot of farmers' votes by showering extra money on the Midwest.  He bought some farmers' votes; it wasn't enough because Biden was buying other votes.

~ James Bovard, "Draining the Swamp with Jim Bovard," Competitive Enterprise Institute, 8:00 mark, January 9, 2025