Trump's Tariffs Are Causing Misery. What if That's the Point?
Trump’s Tariffs Are Causing Misery. What if That’s the Point?
MONEY MATTERS
You can bet your bottom dollar that President Trump isn’t worried about your bottom dollar.
Tim Brinkhof
Updated May 18 2025 10:43AM EDT
Published May 18 2025 9:00AM EDT
Far-right leaders across the modern world—Viktor Orbán, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Rodrigo Duterte to name just a few examples—have often presided over periods of social unrest and economic decline. In theory, the uncertainty that characterizes their rule constitutes a failure of governance. In practice, however, it often serves as a useful political strategy, solidifying support through both the metaphorical and literal creation of crisis.
The current state of the United States under Donald Trump is no exception. Take Trump’s seemingly irrational tariff wars, which have shocked the stock market, discouraged foreign investments, weakened the dollar and cooled both global trade and international relations. Is the president trying to reshore manufacturing? Pressure other countries into signing more favorable trade agreements? Push the federal reserve to lower interest rates to refinance national debt payments?
Each of these explanations, commonly cited by Trump supporters and critics alike, supposes the White House is applying a kind of economic shock therapy, issuing tough-love policies that hurt the U.S. economy in the short term in order to help it bounce back stronger in the long-run.
It’s a tactic favored by populist leaders, including Trump’s “favorite president,” Argentina’s Javier Milei. But while Milei’s action plan, at the cost of temporary spikes in poverty and unemployment, appears to be working, experts warn that Trump himself stands poised to cause lasting, irreparable damage to the country he has promised to lead into a “golden age.”
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https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-tariffs-are-causing-misery-what-if-thats-the-point/
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