The New York Times
Editorial Board member
President Trump loves tariffs not because he wants to revive American manufacturing or because he wants to fill the government’s coffers or because he really believes that Canada is pumping fentanyl into the United States. He loves tariffs because he loves to make people beg.
There is, unfortunately, nothing to prevent Trump from imposing tariffs. Congress evidently isn’t interested in exercising its constitutional powers. But even in the absence of other barriers, Trump keeps stopping himself.
On Wednesday, he announced a one-month suspension of tariffs on vehicles imported from Canada and Mexico after the chief executives of the major automakers apparently performed sufficient acts of obeisance. On Thursday, he announced a broader, again temporary suspension of tariffs on Mexican imports after a call with President Claudia Sheinbaum. We don’t know exactly what was said, but it doesn’t really matter. Trump got to play at noblesse oblige.
These delays are not changes in plan. They are the plan, and Mexico and the Big Three automakers — General Motors, Ford and Stellantis — must surely recognize that what they have been granted is not a reprieve. It is an unpalatable choice: Toe Trump’s line or face economic ruin.
Canada and China are still subject to tariffs, and both countries reportedly are struggling to figure out what the United States wants. That’s the wrong question. This isn’t about the United States. It is about Donald Trump, and what he wants is to rest his boots on your head. That’s why he took Mitt Romney on the world’s most awkward dinner date eight years ago. That’s why he made Robert Kennedy Jr. scarf fast food after the election. That’s why the administration wants to establish a hotline for senators to call to beg for the restoration of funding for programs that they care about.
On Tuesday, in his address before Congress, Mr. Trump went on at great length about the benefits of tariffs, which he has long extolled as a kind of miracle cure for a wide range of national ailments. He’s been saying similar things for a long time, and I guess he probably believes it. But events since the address have once again made clear what Trump values most about tariffs: power.
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