Trump "Accomplishments" - Part IV

There's no doubt in my mind that we're in the early, or even mid stages of a dictatorship. I've discussed that conclusion on many occasions. As someone who believes that democracy is not only important, but is the bedrock upon which our nation is built, the many undemocratic actions that Trump and his enablers in the Republican Party have undertaken have taken a wrecking ball to our democratic institutions. I often hear his supporters minimize this incipient authoritarianism, justifying it by claiming that "he gets things done". 

But does he? If the illegal and unconstitutional actions had been accomplished legally, would they still be considered as having contributed to the greater good? 

What about tariffs? He's imposed hundreds of those; isn't that an accomplishment? Sure, for a certain value of "accomplishment". He's without a doubt imposed tariffs, but to what end? This is one of those categories where Trumpists, as ignorant of economics as Trump, will buy into his explanations and rationales and credit Trump with accomplishing something. When it comes to tariffs, the first thing to understand is that Trump doesn't understand tariffs. He believes that tariffs are paid by foreign governments. He believes that a trade deficit somehow means that we are losing money. Earlier this year I wrote an article explaining tariffs and trade that can be found here. Here's a quote from that article:

Trump thinks tariffs are the answer to most of our problems. It's the hammer when every problem looks like a nail. Some of Trump's supporters are reverse engineering his senseless policies by attempting to pin some kind of rationality on the irrational. Trying, through convoluted illogic, to hallucinate some kind of reason why any of this makes sense. You'll grow old trying to find any kind of policy coherence in anything Trump does. There are more holes in his "logic" that anyone could count before the heat death of the universe. The reason for any of this is Trump's personality. One aspect is his simplistic thinking. He can't conceive of complex systems or relationships. It's why he seems incapable of considering how interconnected our economy is with the rest of the world. 

It doesn't get any better. What is the goal of a tariff? (For a sane leader)

Ideally, a tariff is set to counter prices for foreign made goods that are well below the cost of American products. Often the low price is the result of government subsidies in the originating country, resulting in an "unfair" price difference. The tariff brings the foreign and domestic products closer to parity, with the goal of supporting American business. Foreign countries may impose tariffs on American goods as a way to jump start their own home grown industries. 

Trump has imposed tariffs for a multitude of reasons:

1. To stop the flow of fentanyl into the country from Canada
2. France recognized a Palestinian state
3. Brazil is prosecuting a former president for various crimes
4. To stop illegal immigration
5. To balance the budget
6. It's fair
7. National security
8. To make child care more affordable (really)
9. He doesn't like China

None of these are legitimate economic reasons and some are quite frankly nonsensical. Then there's the formula that he used to calculate tariffs on everyone. 

The tariffs are not, as first assumed, mirror images of tariffs being imposed on U.S. businesses. The tariff rates are based on the ratio of imports and the trade deficit between the United States and the target country. For example, if we export 25 billion to Tariffland, and import 35 million, the deficit is 10 billion, so the formula is 10 ÷ 35. Trump is dividing the resulting percentage by 2 (to be kind, he says), so  28.57%  ÷ 2 = a 14.28% tariff. 

Add to all of this insanity is the on again/off again nature of his tariffs pronouncements. 

The only thing that a Trumper can legitimately claim that Trump accomplished with tariffs is that the Treasury has collected over $100 billion in tariffs this year so far this year. 2021, 2023 and 2024 had tariff revenue of around $80 billion, while 2022 had slightly less than $100 billion. Congratulations! Trump managed to enact a national sales tax, extracting additional billions from taxpayers and businesses. 

That's quite an accomplishment!