Assuming Donald Trump’s social media announcement of tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico was an actual policy plan and not, say, an extortion plan (Trump Hotel rooms, anyone?), the real result will be higher prices and chaos in the American and world economies. The New York Times details just how interdependent our economy is with those three countries and how such tariffs would hike the prices of imported goods for Americans already struggling with inflation, “potentially crippling trade” and causing retaliation. Mexico has already threatened to do just that.
Not that any of that would bother Eric Trump, Daddy or the band of unqualified billionaire bros Daddy wants to install in his cabinet. More likely, they will serve as massive get-richer-quick schemes for the whole clan. As C&L’s Susie Madrak wrote, via Josh Marshall, the tariffs “are likely to be a massive engine of corruption.”
