Trump's Reckless Tariff Flailing Is a Destructive Turn by a Declining Power

"But all this conventional class war is now joined by a trade war - an international conflict over trade barriers like import taxes. Trump's tariff campaign has been undertaken with a goal of re-shoring outsourced U.S. industry after years of corporate globalization, which firms have carried on under the investment provisions of trade treaties. The tremendous scale of these moves, their baffling and shambolic rollout, and retaliation by foreign powers are just the newest trials of the American working class."

"Tariffs are a tax paid by importers bringing foreign commodities into the United States. They are definitely not, as the Dear Leader has claimed, a tax on foreign countries. Tariff taxes are paid by the importing company that usually produces and/or sells the commodity, like Apple when it brings Chinese-assembled iPhones into U.S. ports. The importers may trim their profit margins (as the auto industry has done) to pay some of the import duty, but many companies will simply increase prices paid by consumers."

U.S. workers have faced multiple losses from corporate globalization, policy shifts favoring the wealthy, a major epidemic, and technological landlord collusion that raised rents. A new trade war implemented through tariffs seeks to reshore outsourced industry but has involved large-scale, chaotic rollout and foreign retaliation that further strains the American working class. Tariffs operate as taxes on importers and commonly translate into higher consumer prices, though some firms absorb costs by cutting profit margins. Trade treaties enabled offshoring, and any recent U.S.-China deal may provide only temporary easing given political unpredictability.

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