Via
Ignore the pollsters, pundits, and static noise! Trump is winning big! As Capitol Hill Blue reported earlier in fall 2018, “The establishment is in for another shock: President Trump’s administration may soon win significant breakthroughs in our trade agreements.” While alarmist ideologues write scathing op-eds about the perils of tariffs, they miss the genius and practicality of Trump’s strategy on trade. Trump has utilized tariffs, and the implied threat of greater tariffs, as a cudgel—an effective negotiating tool—to pry open essentially protectionist markets that have been lopsided and imbalanced against the United States.
In foreign relations, there’s a certain consummate naivety among the
laissez nous faire (“let it be”) crowd who posit do-nothingism in the face of lopsided agreements. Increasingly the snarks at the now defunct
Weekly Standard and declining
National Review under David French are echoing the asinine critiques of Trump that parallel Libertarians.