“TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A.,” US president Donald Trump whined in an October 23 Truth Social post (all-caps treatment, of course, his). “Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”

The egregious behavior in question? Telling the truth about tariffs in a $75 million ad campaign. Or, rather, having the late US president Ronald Reagan do so, in his own words:

“Over the long run, such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer …. markets shrink and collapse, businesses and industries shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs.”

Letting Ronald Reagan talk to Americans about tariffs, Trump  raged the next day, constitutes “trying to illegally influence the United States Supreme Court” on the non-question of whether Trump enjoys personal legal authority to impose massive tax hikes on American consumers whenever the urge strikes.

Spoiler alert: He enjoys no such authority (the Constitution assigns taxing authority to Congress, not the president).

Nor is it illegal for Canadian politicians, Ronald Reagan, or anyone else to let Americans know that, in addition to themselves being illegal, his tariff policies are stupid, evil, and economically ruinous.

The US government’s tariff revenues jumped to a record $29.6 billion in July, and may end up hitting $350 billion per year.

Trump would like you to believe that those revenues are magic free money, paid by unspecified philanthropists from other countries and somehow accruing to your benefit when the US Treasury collects them.

In fact, tariffs come out of YOUR pocket in the form of higher prices if you can get the goods you want, less consumer choice because you often can’t, and fewer opportunities for you or your employer to sell in foreign markets as other governments “retaliate” with tariffs, or even embargoes, of their own.

Estimates vary — in large part because Trump’s tariffs rates seem to change by the minute on the basis of his whims and tantrums — but over the last few months he’s hiked your household’s annual tax bill by at least $2,500, and probably closer to $5,000.

That’s a lot of money to spend humoring one guy’s “throw myself on the floor and hold my breath ’til I turn blue” approach to trade/tax policy.

Ontario premier Doug Ford, the politician behind the ad campaign, says he’ll end it after Major League Baseball’s World Series.

But now you know the truth. Don’t forget it.

Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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