Trump Vs. Bloomberg News On Tariffs

This week, Donald Trump had a revealing interview with Bloomberg's editor-in-chief John Micklethwait.

They clashed over tariffs and their dialogue speaks volumes about how Trump's views differ from the conventional economic wisdom.

Micklethwait argued that Trump's planned new tariffs would "essentially halt trade with China" and blasted the former President's plan to impose ten percent universal tariffs on Europe and Japan while raising them 100% on China.

Micklethwait said that Trump's tariffs would force higher prices domestically, provoke sharp retaliation from Beijing, and alienate our closest allies.

Trump responded that the tariffs he imposed on China during his presidency did not kindle inflation and that US industries easily weathered the retaliatory tariffs China imposed.

Now the establishment, as personified by Micklethwait, now warns again of inflation and severe economic damage should Trump proceed to impose such big tariffs.

Like Yankee catcher Yogi Berra said "it's deja vu all over again."

But Trump is right.

American businesses are nimble enough to go outside China to feed their supply chains. China needs the U.S. too much to cripple our economy or even to make a dent.

Americans can easily cut back on their imports from China while Europeans and the Japanese can easily absorb a ten percent increase in tariffs.

Thinking of international trade as a zero sum game is outdated and flies in the face of the global response to Trump's tariffs during his first term.

Morally, Trump rightly justifies the tariffs by noting that the rest of the world has been taking advantage of our generosity in racking up a $773 billion trade surplus with us last year and that it's time now to even the score.