The Folly of Protectionism
This post is especially important today with Donald Trump, who is a protectionist, and who is abusing his power in order to threaten or slap tariffs on imports. I will expose his lie that protectionism is good for the economy.
Donald Trump and those who think like him on trade are telling the American people that manufacturing jobs were lost due to free trade deals. This idea is simply not true. The reason why these manufacturing jobs have left the United States is not because of free trade, but because of technological advances. Even though manufacturing are down from their peak in the late 1970s, manufacturing productivity is up because of technology. If a business owner finds something that makes it to where the business can be more productive with fewer employees, they’ll do that because it helps their bottom line.
Donald Trump is blatantly abusing two laws in order to impose tariffs. The one he is using to slap tariffs on Canada and Mexico is the International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA), which was passed in 1977. It gives the president the power in times of war or national emergency the authority to impose tariffs. Donald Trump has declared fentanyl trafficking a national emergency and is using that excuse to slap tariffs on our two largest trading partners (most of the tariffs are currently paused). In what world is fentanyl trafficking a national emergency? It’s not. Using the IEEPA in this way is contrary to how the law was meant to used and is therefore an abuse of power.
The other law that Donald Trump is abusing in order to impose tariffs is Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. He repeatedly abused this law in his first term in office by declaring steel and aluminum necessary for national security. It’s an abuse of the law to do that. Steel and aluminum can be used for building military equipment, but that doesn’t mean that there is a national security threat involving steel or aluminum that would necessitate tariffs. Donald Trump is now going to slap tariffs on lumber for the exact same reason. Just because lumber could be used in military building materials, doesn’t necessitate tariffs for national security reasons. This is an outright abuse of power (other presidents have used this law as well to impose tariffs on imports, not just Trump).
How does protectionism hurt the economy? By raising prices. If people don’t understand how tariffs raise prices, I will explain. Tariffs on imported goods end up artificially raising prices on imported goods, which in turn the cost of the rise in the price of production is passed down to the consumer in terms of higher prices.
Here’s an illustration of how tariffs raise prices. Let’s say you go to the coffee shop, and the listed price for what you want to buy is $3.85 (that’s how much it is for a regular latte at the local coffee shops I go to). In Texas, my home state, you pay an 8.25% sales tax. You would end up paying $4.17 for what you wanted from the coffee shop. The sales tax makes it more expensive.
Another way protectionism hurts the economy is by reducing the demand for imported goods. Reducing the demand for imported goods reduces competition, thereby raising prices as competition helps to reduce prices.
Protectionism ends up killing jobs because people don’t have as much money to spend, which turn, causes people to lose their jobs. Consumer spending makes up somewhere around 70% of the economic output in the United States, so anything that raises prices is negative for the economy.
Protectionism kills and destroys. It kills jobs and destroys the economy. By raising prices, protectionism kills jobs and destroys the economy.
Free trade on the other hand, creates jobs and helps economic growth by reducing the cost of production by increasing competition. Increased competition is always a good thing for consumers, because increased competition leads to reduced prices, which means the consumer has more money to spend, which in turn creates jobs.
Protecting our industries from competition will not help our economy. As trade has become increasingly more global, the United States adopting a protectionist trade policy will hurt not only our economy, but our national security as well. We need our industries to be in competition across the world. Protectionism does not put America first, but free trade does.
Here’s another thing. What have Mexico and Canada done to us that Donald Trump wants to slap tariffs on their imports? I can’t think of anything. All Donald Trump is doing is damaging our relations with our neighbors, and that isn’t in the best interests of the United States. Starting a trade war is not America First, it’s America Last.
National Review has an excellent piece that came out today on the tariffs. National Review is one of the oldest magazines on the political right in the United States, having been started in 1955 by William F. Buckley, Jr. National Review is willing to call out Trump when he’s wrong and he’s clearly in the wrong here. Here’s the link: https://www.nationalreview.com/2025/03/tariff-mania/
I’ll link to some videos I have found on YouTube. Two are from Ronald Reagan and one is from the Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro.
The first video I will link to is from one of Ronald Reagan’s last radio addresses around Thanksgiving of 1988.
The second video comes from August of 1985, the year after Ronald Reagan won reelection in a landslide.
This next video comes from Ben Shapiro back in 2017.
These three videos explain just how damaging that tariffs are to the economy. They explain how tariffs raise prices and kill jobs.
What we need is Congress to stand up to the president and kill these tariffs by either amending or abolishing the IEEPA and Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to prevent their abuse. According to Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution of the United States, Congress and Congress alone has the authority to impose tariffs, but Congress has delegated a significant amount of its authority to the executive branch in not just the area of tariffs, but other things as well.
We had an opportunity last year to elect a Ronald Reagan figure, but instead Donald Trump was given another four-year term. Despite what Donald Trump’s supporters say, Donald Trump is no Ronald Reagan and is the reason I am now a political independent, even though I am firmly on the political right.
Later on I’ll do a post on why it’s preposterous to make the claim that Donald Trump is another Ronald Reagan.