President Donald J. Trump has kept tariffs in the news, with announcements that look contradictory until one understands his intentions. Trump wants to use tariffs both to replace the income tax and to prompt a rebuild of America’s manufacturing base. That’s why some of his proposed tariffs are on a ninety-day pause; the countries involved have shown willingness to negotiate. But many Americans, including many political theorists, don’t understand what tariffs are, or even what legitimate purposes they might serve. Herewith another primer on tariffs to address certain misunderstandings that decades of misapplied strategy – or unilateral economic disarmament – have facilitated.

What are tariffs?

Tariffs, or import duties, are taxes that importers pay on goods they bring into a country. True, many (if not most) importers will pass such taxes on to the buyers of the imported goods. Such buyers always have the option not to buy. Wal-Mart exercised that option recently after President Trump raised tariffs on communist China to a total of 125 percent. (In fact Wal-Mart has paid lip service for years to the idea of “buying American.”

Until the end of the nineteenth century, the United States financed its government through tariffs. Then a coalition of bankers, with William Randolph Hearst (the inventor of “yellow journalism”) as their chief agent provocateur, talked the country into the Spanish-American War. (They might have done more than talk if the destruction of USS Maine ACR-1 was due to anything other than a paint-locker fire that spread to the ship’s ammunition magazines.) The United States had not embarked on such an expensive foreign venture ever before. (All America’s wars until then took place on what are now the Contiguous States, the Lower Forty-eight, etc.) So Congress laid a telephone tax on wealthy telephone users (who then were the only ones who had telephones). Then in 1910, the “banksters” met on Jekyll Island to create and launch the Federal Reserve System.

The telephone tax is gone. But in 1913 came the income tax. And after World War II came the mis-called “free trade system.”

The great borrowing binge

Contrary to Erick-Woods Erickson’s execrably flawed analysis, trade deficits always must resolve somehow. Any two countries have between them a current account and a capital account. Current-account transactions are imports and exports. Capital-account transactions are investment in new manufacturing plant and equipment – or sales of bonds. Those bonds might be private company commercial paper, or government bonds.

Today the United States has an aggregate net-resultant current-account trade deficit of over a trillion dollars a year with the rest of the world. That cannot possibly sustain itself forever, and it doesn’t. One would expect these other countries to take all the money (American dollars, which are no longer redeemable in gold) they rake in, and invest in plant and equipment to make things in America to sell to Americans. Occasionally that is exactly what happens. But typically, foreign governments use the excess dollars to buy United States Treasury instruments. These are the short-term “bills,” ten-year “notes,” and thirty-year or “long” “bonds” The Wall Street Journal talks about. One finds this “talk” in a section called “Credit Markets and Money Rates.”

This represents continued borrowing by the United States government – and by extension, its citizens. To compound the absurdity, the U.S. government had created this “understanding” with other countries. Which is: you may “tariff” us all you want, so long as you keep buying our bills, notes and bonds.

One would expect a limit on this activity – except that Congress keeps raising the debt ceiling.

Deadbeat city

What does that make America? America has become not only a debtor nation but a spendthrift and almost a deadbeat nation. The one reason America is not a deadbeat nation is that it has not – yet – defaulted on its paper. But America is paying compound interest that itself is a significant portion of the federal budget. The one President in recent memory who presided over a budget surplus was Bill Clinton. And that was only because he couldn’t persuade a Republican Congress to spend big money on his priorities. Or perhaps he had none, because Bill Clinton was never an ideologue. (This is not an endorsement of Bill Clinton. But remember that a broken clock tells the correct time twice a day.)

In any case, federal revenues exceeded expenditures for one or two years in his second term. That’s never happened since.

In the meantime, other countries have been more than content to lend Americans money so that they can keep buying – though they have no work product to buy with. American manufacturing is nearly dead – because other countries have closed their markets to American goods. The ownership of brands is no longer a reliable indicator of what is, and what is not, made in America. That in part reflects foreign companies actually building factories in America. But it also reflects American companies importing goods and slapping their own labels on them.

President Donald Trump wants to put a stop to this.

How Trump plans to use tariffs

Donald Trump has proposed two kinds of tariffs – baseline and reciprocal. The baseline tariff will be ten percent. Americans will always import many, many things they simply can’t “make in the USA.” These are mainly agricultural products, including coffee and tropical fruits. A ten-percent tariff on such staples should provide a comfortable revenue stream. (Rare earths are another story. Trump plans to acquire territories, like the island known variously as Greenland and Kalaalit Nunaat, rich in these minerals.)

Reciprocal tariffs are actually retaliatory. They send the message that no country will ever again close its markets to Americans without consequence. That’s why Trump raised tariffs on Chinese imports to 125 percent, while pausing them on other countries for 90 days.

Other countries can avoid the reciprocal tariffs in one of two ways. Either they open markets to American exporters, or they build factories in America. A factory in America, whether making goods for export or domestic consumption, employs Americans. Many countries are already making both kinds of deal.

A special word about China

China deserves special mention. Their true name for themselves is The Middle Kingdom. Middle of what? Middle of the world. Every Chinese emperor since Noah (who likely founded what became China after disembarking from his Ark) has dreamed of a kingdom that sits in the middle of the world – and rules the world from that position. Whether Chiang Kai-shek thought that way before Mao Zedong drove him out and onto Taiwan is anyone’s guess. But from Mao on, every Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party has thought in these terms also.

Of course they will continue buying American paper – so they can suddenly declare that they own America, and dictate accordingly. They also have built a system on slave labor. And now they are building a navy to rival the United States Navy – as Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) clearly understands.

Furthermore, they want Taiwan back. To leave an independent Taiwan is to lose face. Some have debated on whether China can take Taiwan, but no one doubts that they’ll try. Fortunately the head of Taiwan Semiconductor has already spoken to President Trump about building a plant in the United States. That plant might become the only off-island asset left to the Taiwanese.

The world has enemies

All of which to address a general principle that many economists, especially libertarians, routinely ignore. The human world has enemies. Libertarians always maintain that one has no enemies but what one makes. That’s not true. China is the prize example of an external enemy who will attack without provocation. To China, merely to exist apart from China is to be an enemy of China. Remember how China sees itself: The Middle Kingdom.

Those same libertarian economists despise tariffs because they do not see national borders as legitimate. Perhaps they never once imagine that anything can be an exclusive public concern. If nothing is an exclusive public concern, then no tax is necessary – because government need not exist. And because tariffs are taxes, tariffs shouldn’t be necessary either.

But that presupposes utopia. And human beings will not build utopia. Whenever they try, they inevitably make it tyrannical. Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451) recognized that. For those who don’t, consider the old Soviet Union. Or again, consider China, which governs itself with a Party named after the principle of holding all things in common.

“We can’t get there from here” – oh, yes, we can

Darrell Castle is one such libertarian – and his blind spots should surprise everyone.

Increased revenue comes at the cost of decreased production thus offsetting any gains.

Not if the revenue comes from overseas (cf. External Revenue Service) and production is to increase in-country.

Tariffs tend to slow down production wherever they are imposed. That is a concept proven time and again by history.

Since when? Tariffs slow down imports and prompt someone to build factories in the markets into which one wants to sell. (Which is what Elon Musk has done with Tesla.)

The idea then is to spur US manufacturing. That is a good thing but only if people have enough income to afford the products.

They’ll have the income in the form of factory wages.

A banana republic sells bananas to us and we sell them cars. We import twice as many bananas as that country does cars so there is a trade deficit. So we put a 100% tariff on bananas so problem solved. The difficulty is that the banana republic now can’t afford nearly as many cars so it’s self-defeating.

This is an example of a “straw man.” Ten percent is the more likely figure, as Trump has said repeatedly.

Some of the things we import in great numbers are vital to the American people. The product I’m thinking of is antibiotics which is almost exclusively made in China now.

First, having those antibiotics made here, is the idea. We have to start somewhere, and sometime, so we might as well start there, and now.

Second, such infections are avoidable, and one can combat them by strengthening the body’s defenses. Pumping someone (especially a child) full of antibiotics, is allopathic medicine. As Joseph R. Mercola D.O. aptly demonstrated, allopathic medicine is often a cop-out. Secretary Kennedy, fortunately, is already on that case.

Conclusion: tariffs can work

Hopefully this essay will clear up some misunderstandings that many have expressed about tariffs, and their proper role. Again, a baseline tariff of ten percent across the board might indeed replace the income tax. Trump intends the much higher reciprocal tariffs to change behavior. That includes restoring incentives to build things in America, for Americans and for those who produce goods America cannot produce.

Link to:

The article:

https://cnav.news/2025/04/13/news/tariffs-misunderstandings/

Video:

Various sources:

https://retailwire.com/discussion/walmarts-open-call-continues-to-support-products-made-in-the-usa/

https://cnav.news/2025/04/10/editorial/guest/tax-spanish-american-war-century/

https://ewerickson.substack.com/p/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly

https://cnav.news/2025/04/12/editorial/guest/tariffs-resetting-global-order/

https://cnav.news/2025/04/13/accountability/executive/china-restoring-american-industrial-might/

https://cnav.news/2025/02/07/accountability/executive/china-taiwan-unintended-consequences/

https://cnav.news/2025/03/08/accountability/executive/china-war-plans/

Declarations of Truth:

https://x.com/DecTruth

Declarations of Truth Locals Community:

https://declarationsoftruth.locals.com/

Conservative News and Views:

https://cnav.news/

Clixnet Media

https://clixnet.com/

As Resurrection Sunday approaches, Dallas Jenkins is premiering his fifth season of his long-running streaming series, The Chosen, in theaters. This theatrical run is, to be sure, limited. Yet last Wednesday (April 2), its first of three installments came in second place overall in gross box-office receipts. The Walt Disney Company’s live-action Snow White remake came in third place, with a wider release! And little wonder. Not only does The Chosen have better source material to work with, but it takes a far more respectful approach. The result is a series of films that build suspense at least as well as does any “thriller” franchise. But besides that, it holds up a mirror to our own society, into which all Americans should look.

The Chosen – Who is He/are they?

The Chosen opened in 2017 in the streaming market, first from Angel Studios. (They are the same distributor that brought us Sound of Freedom.) Writer-Director-Producer Dallas Jenkins (son of Jerry Jenkins of Left Behind fame) films mostly on location in Texas and Utah. Jenkins’ production company (Five and Two Studios) plans seven seasons of eight episodes each. The Chosen finished its fourth season last year, after a considerable delay during which Jenkins found another distributor (Come and See). Anyone can view it on a dedicated “app” available in the Google Play and Apple App Stores. It is also available on the Roku API, which has the largest (over 300,000) inventory of “channels” for streaming boxes and “smart TVs” using that API.

The Chosen is, of course, Jesus Christ, or His Apostles. Thus the series treats the public ministry of Christ, beginning after His Forty-day Temptation in the Desert. Season 1 begins with Mary Magdalene and ends with the Woman at the Well. Season Two ends before the Sermon on the Mount, and Season 3 ends with the Feeding of the Multitude. That last episode also shows Jesus walking on water, rescuing Simon (now called Peter) from the storm-tossed waves, then calming the storm.

Season 4 begins with the most tragic scenes of all thus far, especially the execution of John the Baptist. It continues with an observance of the Feast of Dedication, or Hanukkah. It ends with the resuscitation of Lazarus, and Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.

The most recent season

Season 4 also set the pattern for future season releases: in theaters, in three installments covering eight episodes. So Season 5 is following that same pattern. The full name of this three-part arrangement is The Chosen: The Last Supper, because the season treats the last week of Jesus’ mortal life. Part One began with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, and ended with His expelling the marketers and moneychangers from the Temple. Regular viewers expected an intense scene, and they got one – and perhaps were as surprised to see Jesus reacting in violent anger as His Apostles were.

Part Two continued to the Last Supper of the trilogy’s name – and also to Judas meeting with High Priest Caiaphas. Part Three will show next week, and end with Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Each part of the arrangement will run for one week only, opening on a Thursday and closing next Wednesday. Given that narrow gap, Part One accomplished an incredible feat. According to The Numbers, it finished its one-week run in second place, behind MGM’s A Working Man. It finished comfortably ahead of the Disney Snow White remake. Furthermore, it earned $593 per screen – while Snow White earned only $203 per screen. Over its weekly run, Part One performed as expected from its opener. Snow White has not performed up to expectations.

The Chosen – how it plays

The number of actors who have portrayed Jesus Christ in motion pictures and television is almost too many to count. These portraits have varied from central (like Max Von Sydow in The Greatest Story Ever Told), to brief (see, for example, Ben-Hur, The Robe, and the Hallmark special Give Us Barabbas). Jonathan Roumie shows viewers a Jesus like no other in film or TV before him. He plays Jesus as Accessible, and trying earnestly to teach something to men who, half the time, can’t understand Him. That’s because He is teaching a new way of thinking, about humans’ relationships with one another, and with God.

As mentioned, the series begins with Mary Magdalene (Elizabeth Tabish), who comes to understand Him better than anyone. (And why not, after He delivered her from possession by seven unclean spirits?) Simon Peter (Shahar Isaac) thinks he understands Jesus – but regular viewers know he’ll crack. Judas Iscariot (Luke Dimyan) keeps expecting Jesus to be some kind of military rebel leader. Of course Jesus is anything but that – and viewers will understand fully when Judas sells Him out.

All the traditional biblical characters are present, including all twelve Apostles, the Evangelist Matthew (whom we see abandoning his tax-collecting trade), and a certain Roman officer who begs Jesus to heal his son – and also says he doesn’t rate Jesus entering his house!

Unusual and extra-biblical characters

Andrew James Allen plays a most unusual Pilate – a brash young Roman who got his Prefectship as a political favor. This Pilate is out of his depth. His wife Claudia (Sarah J. Bartholomew) knows it, and so does the Roman garrison commander Atticus Aemilius Pulcher (Elijah Alexander). In fact the Roman contingent, military and civilian, present the perfect picture of aristocrats and their enforcers. This is, after all, an occupied land, whose people resent that occupation.

The Jewish Sanhedrin, including Caiaphas (Richard Fancy) and Shmuel (Shaan Sharma), are an insincere lot, and it shows. The only sincere man among them is Nicodemus (Erick Avari), who at least is willing to ask Jesus honest questions. Their colleagues are constantly plotting and scheming, their only concern being how to retain power. So well does the cast project this, that one has only to look at them to know this. When Jesus calls them out, everyone understands instantly what He’s talking about.

David Amito plays an earnest John the Baptizer, who goes to his death knowing he has found God.

Occasionally The Chosen opens an episode with scenes from centuries ago, or millennia. Thus it occasionally includes ancient characters like Kings David and Solomon. (This hasn’t happened – so far – in Season 5.)

Lessons for today

The source of the power of The Chosen is its rich portrait of the larger society in which the events take place. One will readily recognize modern analogues of the Sanhedrin, the Roman aristocrats, and even ordinary people. Who hasn’t met legalists of every stripe – and who can fail to recognize the decadence of modern rich people? As King Solomon said,

There is nothing new under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:9

Furthermore, Elizabeth Tabish’ Mary Magdalene is a metaphor for ourselves. She starts as broken as one gets, and becomes a tough-as-nails advocate for the Man Who gave her hope for the first time in her life.

Perhaps by no accident, Jenkins abbreviates, or omits, certain parts of the story of Jesus’ last days. When the outraged Sanhedrin ask Jesus by what authority He expels the moneychangers and merchants from the Temple, He replies, “My own!” Not a word about Jesus’ asking them by what authority John the Baptist baptized people. Nor does the Levirate Riddle of the Sadducees – which of seven brothers is a widow married to in heaven – appear. The script proceeds from Jesus making light of the census tax directly to the Summary of the Law.

That’s because, correctly or incorrectly, Dallas Jenkins believes these things are distractions. Even as sweeping a drama as a fifty-six-episode series (with no definite limits on running time for each episode) has a limit to how much one can cover. Jenkins has chosen to focus on the most important things one can learn from Scripture.

Reception

Critic Michael Schwartz of The Western Journal observes that The Chosen Season 5 Part One made almost double what Season 4 Part One made in their respective opening weekends. As he further observes, one can explain the differing reception of The Chosen and Snow White in two ways. Either Snow White is an egregious two-hour cliché, whose leading “lady” made the reception worse with her gratuitous insults of audience and supporting cast alike – or The Chosen finally gives viewers what they have wanted, and haven’t had, for at least a decade, if not longer.

Both might be true – and both probably are – but a positive fact is always stronger than a negative. The Chosen succeeds, not by default but by offering a Message that satisfies as nothing else can. Dallas Jenkins and his cast and associates clearly understand that people want something more than an appeal to self-righteousness. Life must have meaning beyond self if it is to be worth living. The Chosen reminds us of something we already knew, deep in our hearts. More and more people are responding to that Message.

Will Hollywood “get” the Message? Probably not. So movie exhibitors will have a decision to make, almost as profound as the decision any individual must make.

Link to:

The article:

https://cnav.news/2025/04/05/editorial/talk/the-chosen-timely-timeless/

Video:

Box Office performance charts from The Numbers:

https://www.the-numbers.com/box-office-chart/daily/2025/04/02

https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Chosen-The-Last-Supper-Part-1-(2025)#tab=box-office

https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Disneys-Snow-White-(2025)#tab=box-office

Michael Schwartz’ review:

https://www.westernjournal.com/chosen-last-supper-cruises-past-woke-snow-white-remake/

Declarations of Truth:

https://x.com/DecTruth

Declarations of Truth Locals Community:

https://declarationsoftruth.locals.com/

Conservative News and Views:

https://cnav.news/

Clixnet Media

https://clixnet.com/

Yesterday President Donald J. Trump implemented a sweeping regime of reciprocal and baseline tariffs with all America’s trading partners. Or rather, with the countries who have willingly sold America many more goods and services than they have bought, and in the process racked up an untold amount of “receivables.” When a seller lets you rack up a high tab and never duns you, you must ask why. Donald Trump said America will stop running up the tab. That has “free trade” sophists of all stripes crying “Foul!” Now is another reason to ask why, and to rebut the most common free-trade arguments.

What Trump has done on tariffs

Yesterday Donald Trump proclaimed “Liberation Day” – liberation, that is, from going ever deeper into trade debt. He announced a ten-percent baseline tariff with all trading partners, beginning this Saturday (April 5). Furthermore, he imposed “reciprocal tariffs” on countries who charge greater than ten percent.

Not one country on earth, other than the United States today, charges less than a ten percent baseline tariff. To show this, Trump posted to Truth Social a four-part table, in image form, showing:

1. Tariffs charged to the USA, and

2. New baseline and “discounted reciprocal” tariffs the USA will now start charging.

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114270396482753269

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114270397111664712

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114270397827085442

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114270398531479278

Again, every country charges a baseline tariff of ten percent, at least. Israel, at the time Trump made his posters, charged a 33 percent total tariff. The highest tariffs are for sales into the former French Indochina, especially Cambodia, which charges the highest tariffs. The Trump tariffs are ten percent, or half the total tariff any given country charges, whichever is higher. (Trump will charge Canada the baseline tariff only, regardless of reciprocal tariffs. Already Doug Ford, Prime Minister of Ontario Province, announced his proposal to eliminate all tariffs on both sides. But he lacks the authority to promise that.)

Rollbacks, etc.

Before day’s end, several countries had already announced rollbacks of their tariffs, in direct response or anticipation. Israel specifically announced cancellation of any remaining tariffs on U.S. imports. India has already begun negotiating a new regime to reduce their current tariffs. Switzerland has now eliminated tariffs on 99 percent of U.S. goods.

But the U.S. Senate seems to have broken with the Trump administration regarding the charging of any tariffs to Canada. The Senate passed a resolution in opposition to the tariffs – and four Republicans joined all Democrats to support that resolution. They are Senators:

• Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.),

• Rand Paul (R-Ky.),

• Susan Collins (R-Maine), and

• Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) proposed the resolution, which no one expects to pass the House. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) did not vote on the resolution; why he missed that vote is unclear.

McConnell, Collins, and Murkowski all have reputations as spiteful opponents of Trump and everything he does or stands for. But Rand Paul, unlike the other three, has some principled grounds for opposition, however misguided. Like all libertarians, he believes that tariffs are inherently inimical to human liberty. Furthermore, if one country imposes a tariff on another, it does nothing except to deny purchase opportunities to its own citizens, subjects, or lawful residents. Libertarians simply do not recognize any national economic or even strategic interest. “Unilateral economic disarmament” has always been the libertarian by-word regarding international trade.

Trump offers an explanation

In announcing his new tariffs, Trump offered an explanation that went back to the first century of American history. (Source: Fox News.) From the Inauguration of President George Washington to the first year of Woodrow Wilson, tariffs financed the federal government.

From 1789 to 1913, we were a tariff-backed nation. And the United States was proportionately the wealthiest it has ever been. So wealthy, in fact, that in the 1880s they established a commission to decide what they were going to do with the vast sums of money they were collecting. We were collecting so much money so fast, we didn’t know what to do with it. Isn’t that a nice problem to have?

But in 1910, a group of wealthy bankers met at Jekyll Island, which was the Martha’s Vineyard of its day. This claque invented the Federal Reserve Banking System. Since then, Americans have used debt, not precious metals, to settle their own debt. Also in that year, the States ratified (maybe) Amendment XVI – the income tax.

In his announcement, Trump expanded on his notion of “liberation” from a one-sided trade regime:

American steel workers, auto workers, farmers and skilled craftsmen – [of which] we have a lot … here with us today, [have] really suffered, gravely. They watched in anguish as foreign leaders have stolen our jobs, foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories, and foreign scavengers have torn apart our once-beautiful American dream. We had an American dream that you don't hear so much about. You did four years ago, and you are now. But you don't too often.

Now it’s our turn to prosper, and in so doing, use trillions and trillions of dollars to reduce our taxes and pay down our national debt. And it will all happen very quickly. With today’s action, we are finally going to be able to make America great again, greater than ever before. Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base.

Trump further explained how he calculates the total tariff burden. It includes not only direct monetary tariffs but also regulatory and other barriers to market entry.

For decades, the United States slashed trade barriers on other countries, while those nations placed massive tariffs on our products and created outrageous non-monetary barriers to decimate our industries. And in many cases, the non-monetary barriers were worse than the monetary ones. They manipulated their currencies, subsidized their exports, stole our intellectual property, imposed exorbitant taxes to disadvantage our products, adopted unfair rules and technical standards, and created filthy pollution havens.

That last touches on a supreme irony of the tariff debate. For decades, the same Democrats who now complain about the tariffs, complained about other countries’ inattention to the natural environment, as well as the slave wages most employers in these countries paid their labor force. “Filthy pollution havens” doesn’t half say it in many cases.

Finally Trump reminded everyone of the simple way to avoid tariffs: build manufacturing capacity in America. Elon Musk’s Tesla does just that: builds factories in, or close to, the markets into which they wish to sell.

The case for tariffs

Aside from Sen. Paul, Erick-Woods Erickson makes the typical case for “free trade.” He starts with the observation that the Standard and Poor’s 500 index lost nine percent of its valuation from late February to the present. That could reflect the beginnings of Trump’s aggressive trade policy – but Erickson does not substantiate that. Besides, Trump announced his new policies after the stock markets closed.

Then he asserts without warrant that:

A trade deficit is … not actually a bad thing, and more often than not, countries running trade deficits are those that are wealthier and healthier economically.

He cites Vietnam as an example. Labor and production costs in Vietnam are lower, he says, because the country is poor. So making things “over there” is cheaper. Therefore, all other things being equal, Americans might prefer to buy cheaper goods.

But many of those same Americans are out of jobs because someone is buying clothing and other goods from Vietnam. How are Americans supposed to be able to afford anything if they can’t work?

Nor is Vietnam the only example. In fact, America has a net trade deficit with all the rest of the world. An individual who “runs a trade deficit” with everyone else in the economy, is a spendthrift, or a deadbeat. If his surpluses with some do not balance his deficits with others, he is spending money. Such accounting applies equally to nation-states as to individuals. Any suggestion to the contrary, constitutes magical thinking – or a pack of lies.

Finally, if you doubt the existence of non-tariff barriers, the U.S. Trade Representative dropped an eleven-post thread explaining them.

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569779503689792

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569781764464834

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569783312155084

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569785074016595

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569786839617560

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569788404007154

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569789997908041

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569791633858606

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569793353351416

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569795085594845

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569796528365867

Rebuttals to the case against tariffs

Erickson tries in vain to make a case against the Trump policy. To begin with:

We are told an American business can now and should build a manufacturing base in the United States. However, these businesses do not know how long the tariffs will last, and, in the worst-case scenario, they could end in four years with a new president. So do you think they want to invest the capital in new factories with higher labor costs that won’t be finalized for more than four years in the United States when the tariffs could go away within four years?

What prospect have the Democrats to take back the White House in four years?

Never underestimate the predilections of the winning political party fixing the problems of the losing political party. Trump’s tariffs have given the Democrats an economic message that silences their cultural activists and elevates their economic pragmatists.

Oh, really? Last CNAV heard, their cultural activists are still screaming bloody murder. Susan Crawford won her Justicial election in Wisconsin by campaigning as The Abortion Justice. Democrats are still

the party of illegal aliens, … murderers[, violators of women,] and gang members in [law-abiding Americans’] communities.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)

If Erick-Woods Erickson seriously expects the Democrats to stop advocating for illegal aliens, he should lower his expectations. Those aliens are how they stole seats in the House from red States and hope to flip those red States.

Every single developed nation on planet earth has a baseline tariff of less than 10%, and most of those nations, contrary to what you might believe, exempt the United States from paying tariffs due to trade agreements Trump just scuttled.

That’s a lie, as Donald Trump demonstrated with his posters.

Israel not only has a free trade agreement with the United States, which means virtually every American good has no tariff, but it also scrapped the few remaining tariffs with the United States. Nonetheless, it will be hit with a 17% tariff, and some Trump officials, on background this afternoon, slandered the Israelis as intellectual property thieves to justify the tariffs.

That’s what negotiations are for. CNAV will not comment on an accusation that appears only in Mr. Erickson’s article.

Essentially, they took a country's trade deficit with us as a numerator in an equation with the denominator being that nation’s exports to the United States, then multiplied by 100.

That’s another lie. Trump clearly outlined the basis of his calculations, and that is not it.

Then there is Australia. We run a trade surplus with Australia because Australia does not have a massive manufacturing base but is very wealthy, so it can afford American imports. Nonetheless, Trump is imposing a 10% tariff on Australian imports, claiming Australia, which has a free trade agreement with us, imposes a tariff on us. That is not true.

Where are your links, Mr. Erickson? And that last accusation is very rich coming from a columnist who has told two lies already.

Many American manufacturers moved their businesses to places like Vietnam, which are actually not pro-China. Now, Trump is smacking these countries, Taiwan included, with steep, steep tariffs. In addition to hurting those economies, he risks driving many of them towards China.

Mr. Erickson knows better than that. Those manufacturers have an obvious alternative: come back home. In fact, Taiwan Semiconductor has already announced plans to build new plant in the United States.

Roughly 50% of the vehicles sold in this country under $40,000.00 are imports, and that, too, will hit the working class.

All in good time. We will rebuild our manufacturing base. Ask the President of the United Auto Workers’ Union.

Worse, this will most likely lead to a recession.

No, it won’t. Not when Americans get back the jobs the free-trade sophists gave away.

Summing up

In sum, President Trump makes an ironclad case for his economic nationalism in the form of tariffs. The case against them begins with magical thinking and continues with outright lying and dissembling.

America will now stop being the spendthrift and deadbeat nation in the world. So the elites, who wanted all along to take America down with a big delayed dun, will have to find another way.

Link to:

The article:

https://cnav.news/2025/04/03/news/tariffs-trade-taxes/

Video:

Tariff announcement, reactions, and repercussions:

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/trump-unleashes-10-baseline-tariff-all-u-s/

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/winning-trumps-reciprocal-tariffs-trigger-global-response-multiple/

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-finmin-seeks-immediate-end-remaining-tariffs-us-imports-2025-04-01/

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/india-us-trade-deal-modi-government-eyes-tariff-cuts-on-more-than-half-of-us-imports-worth-23-billion-says-report/articleshow/119473879.cms

https://www.reuters.com/world/swiss-minister-stresses-countrys-contribution-us-avoid-trump-tariffs-2025-03-23/

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/breaking-senate-votes-sabotage-president-trumps-canadian-tariff/

Trump’s Truths (posters of other countries’ tariffs):

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114270396482753269

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114270397111664712

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114270397827085442

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114270398531479278

Trump’s explanation:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-touts-return-american-dream-historic-tariff-announcement

U.S. Trade Representative’s thread:

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569779503689792

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569781764464834

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569783312155084

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569785074016595

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569786839617560

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569788404007154

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569789997908041

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569791633858606

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569793353351416

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569795085594845

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/1907569796528365867

Declarations of Truth:

https://x.com/DecTruth

Declarations of Truth Locals Community:

https://declarationsoftruth.locals.com/

Conservative News and Views:

https://cnav.news/

Clixnet Media

https://clixnet.com/