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President Donald Trump and his economic team justified last week’s sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs with multiple conflicting explanations that, when considered together, make no sense at all.
The administration wants the public to believe three different things, all of which are in tension. First, Trump’s tariffs are designed to launch a renaissance for American manufacturing replaced by overseas imports, bringing back long lost working class jobs and reinvigorating the blue collar middle class. Second, that the tariffs are meant to raise massive amounts of revenue to replace the progressive income tax. And third, Trump’s advisers and various online sycophants also claim that the purpose is to use the tariffs as pressure on foreign nations to cut bilateral trade deals with the U.S.
These ideas may make varying levels of sense, in that they may do what those promoting them claim if executed strategically (albeit with differing levels of pain for the average American). But put together they make zero sense. Each is in conflict with the other. It can either be one thing or the other thing, but not all three things or even two out of three.
Hours later, Trump boasted online that “Countries from all over the world are talking to us. Spoke to Japanese Prime Minister this morning. He is sending a top team to negotiate!”
But since “Liberation Day,” the administration has flailed from one rationale to another, often with the administration openly contradicting itself within the hour.
On Monday morning, the Financial Times carried an op-ed from White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, where he declared: “This is not a negotiation.”
Soon after, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reposted Trump’s comment online to note that he would lead tariff negotiations with Japan.
These mixed messages were really just the healthy product of differing opinions, Council of Economic Advisors Chair Stephen Miran said on Monday.
“There are conflicting narratives because everyone’s got an opinion. That’s fine. Disagreement is how you can avoid groupthink, and I think that’s very healthy,” Miran said, according to a post by The Washington Post’s Jeff Stein.
Restore American Manufacturing
The main line from the Trump administration is that these tariffs are designed to restore America’s place as a manufacturing hub by bringing back the factory jobs that have been leaving the country since the 1960s.
