Let me be crystal clear. Tariffs absolutely impact the economy. The idea was supposed to be simple, reciprocal tariffs against VAT taxes. If Switzerland charges an 8.3% VAT on American goods, fine, charge 8.3% on Swiss goods coming into the U.S. Watches, gold bars, clean and balanced. Everyone understands that. Instead, we slapped on a 39% tariff and created chaos overnight. That is not strategy, that’s friction. Eventually this all has to come back to reciprocity. Trade only works when it feels fair on both sides.
And here’s where the policy really breaks down. Take aluminum. You need bauxite to make it. We don’t have enough of it, it takes ten years to build a plant, and you need nearly a gigawatt of power that our grid doesn’t even have right now. So no, tariffs are not magically creating jobs tomorrow. Before anything else, eliminate tariffs on things we don’t and can’t produce ourselves, bauxite, potash, bananas, pineapples. Why tax yourself?
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