The editorial board of The Wall Street Journal is warning President Trump is making similar mistakes on trade to those during his first term in the White House.
Noting Trump’s orders imposing 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, The Journal said the president “gave the economy another jolt of uncertainty.”
“His advisers say these tariffs are economically ‘strategic’ rather than a bargaining chip for some other goal. Is the strategy to harm U.S. manufacturers and workers?” the outlet asked.
“That’s what his first-term tariffs did, and it’s worth revisiting the damage of that blunder as he threatens to repeat it,” the newspaper wrote, saying automakers as well as steel and wire companies were negatively impacted by Trump’s first-term tariffs.
“This is political rent-seeking at its most brazen, and it benefits the few at the expense of the many,” the Journal wrote. “None of this matters to Mr. Trump, whose dogmatic views on tariffs can’t be turned by evidence. But we thought our readers would like to know the rest of the story.”
Monday’s editorial is the latest in a slew from the Journal knocking the president and his policies on trade, the economy and a number of other issues.
