The typically conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board ripped into President Donald Trump in a new piece, lambasting him for an “obsession” he cannot quit despite the major “harm” it is causing mere months from the midterms.
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Owned by conservative mogul Rupert Murdoch, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board is often viewed as a leading voice reflecting the stances and temperaments of the modern conservative movement. In a piece published Friday evening, the board published a new piece questioning the wisdom of Trump’s decision to reinstitute several tariffs, despite the import tax policies being widely viewed as one of his least popular with voters.
“Tariffs are an obsession for President Trump, much as climate was for the Biden Administration,” the board observed.
“How else to explain his imposition of yet another round of border taxes three months before the November election despite their political unpopularity and economic harm?”
Many of these new tariffs come under the supposed authority of “Section 301,” a trade law that allows the president to impose tariffs in response to “unfair foreign acts, policies, or practices affecting U.S. commerce,” including new rates leveled against Canada and Brazil, two nations on Trump’s bad side for one reason or another. As the WSJ board argued, these rates are just another example of Trump attempting to use tariffs as a weapon, with the justifications given being flimsy.
“The Administration says America’s trading partners—including Canada and the European Union—are unfairly discriminating against the U.S. by not doing enough to stop imports made with forced labor. Yes, the slave traders of Toronto strike again,” the board added. “Last week the President announced Section 301 tariffs of 25% on Brazil because he doesn’t like its leftwing leader Lula da Silva. Note how Mr. Trump weaponizes tariffs: He picks a target. Then his team finds a pretext for tariffs.”
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Some of the tariffs against Canada have come under the authority of Section 338, a provision of the infamous 1930 Smoot-Hawley Act, which “no president has used… before.” In doing so, the WSJ board noted, Trump has effectively trapped the U.S. in a “needless trade war with its second-largest trading partner.”
“Mr. Trump’s tariff defenders point to the buoyant stock market as evidence that his border taxes aren’t harmful,” the board added. “But last year’s tax bill—especially the business provisions like full investment expensing—has offset some of the damage from his tariffs. So has the AI investment boom.”
It concluded: “Imagine how strong the economy would be without the tariffs and their uncertainty for business. Americans remain unhappy about the economy, and higher prices are a big reason. They know that tariffs are adding to their pain even if they don’t see the cost as a line-item on a bill. Republicans could pay the price in November.”
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