This weekend, President Trump once again pulled the fire alarm, shouted “Emergency!” and took a radical, illegal action that threatens to derail the US economy and erode our international standing.
In a series of garbled emails fired off early Saturday night, he announced a ten percent tariff on Chinese imports and 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada, blowing up the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement he himself negotiated in 2020. Gesturing vaguely in the direction of immigration and drug “emergencies,” he congratulated himself for “taking bold action to hold Mexico, Canada, and China accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country.”
Trump’s comms staff barely even pretended that this so-called emergency was really about drugs and immigration, grousing instead about trade deficits and reminding other countries that “Access to the American market is a privilege.”
“Though previous Administrations have failed to leverage America’s combination of exceptional strength and its unique role in world trade to advance the security interests of the American people, President Trump has not,” they snarked.
Trump himself could barely be bothered to hold a fig leaf up over his rancid junk. He managed a comparatively statesmanlike post in the afternoon announcing the levies pursuant to his “duty as President to ensure the safety of all.” But then a Wall Street Journal editorial entitled “The Dumbest Trade War in History” reduced him spluttering incoherently — and truthfully! — that the real purpose of this exercise is to extort our trade partners to buy more American goods, while forcing manufacturers to onshore production to the US.
Some of you may die. It’s a sacrifice he’s willing to make.
“Emergency” Powers
Under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, “Congress shall have the Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.” Congress still shapes the regular tariff schedule, but over time the legislature made certain “emergency” delegations of tariff authority to the president.
In keeping with Trump’s quest to centralize all power in himself, including powers explicitly assigned to Congress in the Constitution, Trump cites these as authorization to adjust tariffs at will. And in keeping with congressional Republicans’ quest to debase their offices, they’ve happily ceded power at every turn.
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