Fine. Let Donald Have His Tariffs.

Before you jump into the comments to yell, hear us out on this.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

by Bob Cesca

WASHINGTON, DC – Among many things Donald Trump doesn’t understand about tariffs is that he doesn’t possess the unilateral power to impose them. We all know this, but finally the Federal Circuit court of appeals made it official, ruling that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) doesn’t allow him to authorize the taxes.

The court stated the obvious: “The core congressional power to impose taxes such as tariffs is vested exclusively in the legislative branch by the Constitution.” But naturally the dictator pledged to appeal the decision to the pro-Trump Supreme Court where there’s a decent, though not certain chance the appellate decision will be overturned.

Part of me wants SCOTUS to let him have his favorite toy.

Before you jump into the comments to yell at me, hear me out on this.

First and foremost, the worse the economy does, the more Donald Trump fails, the better it is for the future of democracy. Whenever Donald crashes and burns, democracy wins. It’s as simple as that. The economy can recover, but democracy might not.

That aside, and due to the fact that his head is filled with rocks and garbage, he refuses to understand the self-destructive nature of his ludicrous, anachronistic tariff policy. He doesn’t seem to grasp that tariffs will piss off literally everyone because, as has been repeatedly established, tariffs are taxes imposed on American corporations. The taxes are passed along to all American consumers in the form of higher prices – sparking higher inflation. They’re not taxes on foreign governments as the dumdum tyrant wants us to believe. And as prices rise, down goes the Donald Trump presidency and the Republican Party with him.

Sure, I love it whenever he fails or is denied something he wants. Tyrants in pain make me happy. But if he wants tariffs so badly, fine. Even though I understand that we’ll all suffer the consequences of higher prices, I’m almost willing to accept the hit to my finances if it means Donald’s support evaporates and people revolt at the ballot box.

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More than anything else, I want his fanboys to realize that he’s not the economic genius he claims to be. Too many suckers bought into this nonsense about tariffs despite copious warnings about higher prices, especially when combined with the inflationary impact of mass deportations.

If the MAGA disciples and Donald himself knew anything about the history of tariffs, they’d understand the political calamity tariffs tend to inflict on anyone who supports them. The president likes to talk about William McKinley’s tariffs of 1890 and how they led to national prosperity. They didn’t. In fact, there was a deep economic depression from 1893 to 1897, partially due to the fallout from the tariffs. But prior to that, McKinley’s Republican Party was crushed in the midterms of 1890, after the tariff act, when the Republicans lost four Senate seats and a whopping 86 seats in the House, including McKinley’s seat (contrary to what Donald thinks, McKinley wasn’t president when the act passed). Shortly thereafter, for the first time since prior to the Civil War, Democrats ended up controlling both the White House and Congress.

Whenever I recall the political ramifications of high tariffs and Donald’s weird obsession with the McKinley Tariff Act, I desperately want him to suffer the same fate. I want him to stumble into his own propeller. I want his supporters, in particular, to be burned by the stove they can’t stop grabbing.

On the other hand, he’s already deeply underwater in the latest polls on the economy, so the political downsides of his tariff scheme might not be necessary. The latest American Research Group poll shows Donald’s approval on the economy at 34 percent, which is about as low as his polling can go before hitting the brainwashed sucker demographic. 34 percent is both horrendous and good news for democracy. By contrast, his average polling approval on the economy during his first term was around 52 percent.

Meanwhile, job creation is vanishing and prices are climbing alongside the “Trump Always Chickens Out” herky jerky tariff rollout – reversing the downward trajectory of inflation in 2023 and 2024. The pain inflicted on the economy by an incompetent, destabilizing chief executive – tariffs or not – might be enough to trigger a political nightmare for the MAGA party. In other words, even if he’s denied the ability to do all the damage he wants to do, the economy might still take a shit because he’s got nothing else.

So, if the Supreme Court conservatives want to help Donald, as they have many times in the past, the best thing they could do is to rule against him, revoking his tariffs and saving him from himself. But given their view of executive authority there’s a good chance they’ll give him exactly what he wants, which could end the Republican stranglehold on government and seriously endanger his presidency. Again, great news for democracy.

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