Trump Tariffs, Why Now?
We all know that Trump admires President William McKinley. We know this because one of Trump’s first acts in 2025 was to re-re-name the Alaskan mountain after the 25th president. It didn’t matter that McKinley never set foot in Alaska. The tallest peak in North America was originally called Denali, as Alaskans used the Koyukon Athabascan word meaning, “the high one.” In 1896, a gold prospector named it after McKinley to support McKinley’s run for president. Angry Alaskan’s changed it back in 1975, and President Obama made it official at the federal level in 2015.
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| An Ice Sculpture |
Why the Trump interest in McKinley? Let’s let Trump answer that one with a quote, “President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent. He was a natural businessman.” Trump goes on, “He was a strong believer in tariffs, and we were actually probably wealthiest of any time, relatively speaking, at any point in the history of our country.”
While some Americans have shared this view of the U.S. economy of the 1890s, they, like President Trump, don’t know their history. I know, you’re shocked that a president doesn’t know history. I guess his bone spurs may have been acting up and affected his concentration during history and economics classes.
The 1890s were not a good time for the U.S. economy and we had a major recession in 1893, followed by five years of double-digit inflation. Just a reminder here, this was a period before income taxes when tariffs were the main source of federal income. The McKinley Tariff was sponsored by him while he was an Ohio congressman. The bill raised the rate from 40% to 50%. The 1890 McKinley tariff was debated during the congressional election and the Republican Party later lost control of Congress in the midterm elections.
While manufacturing was strong during this period, tying that strength to the McKinley tariffs, is questionable at best. Even McKinley seems to have had a change of heart in regard to tariffs late in his term, as he shifted toward beneficial trade agreements that could expand trade, not contract it.
Beyond tariffs, Trump also relates to McKinley’s colonial nature as he annexed Hawaii, took Puerto Rico as a colony and expanded our influence in the Philippines, Guam and Cuba. This is perhaps why Trump wants to acquire Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal.
But getting back to tariffs, where did this fondness with tariffs come from? Is he just confused about history or is there something else at work here? Enter trade advisor Peter Navarro. Yes, apparently Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, found Navarro on an Amazon book list where he had published, Death by China. In that book and others he authored, Navarro quotes Ron Vara as his source of enlightenment. The problem here is that Ron Vara is a fictional character in this otherwise non-fiction tome. Mr. Vara was described as a doctoral student at Harvard.
Yes, Navarro just made up this person as an anagram of his own name. When caught, Navarro defends the fabricated Ron Vara as a “whimsical device.” The publisher will now place a notification in future copies of the book warning of this fabrication. Another economist, Glenn Hubbard, co-authored another book with Navarro where Ron Vara was quoted and he says he was not privy to the joke and he wasn’t amused.
However, Trump will likely find humor here as he too created the fictional characters, John Barron and John Miller, back in the 1980s. Trump would call into newspapers using these names claiming to be a publicist extolling the virtues of that wonderful billionaire, Donald Trump. Trump later would name his last son, Barron. Perhaps Trump’s third term would just be John Miller with Ron Vara as his new VP. [I hope he doesn’t read this and get any ideas.]
Peter Navarro, in addition to playing fast and loose with facts, is also an outlier in the field of economics. He equates tariffs with tax cuts by ignoring inflation. The wealthy can afford to do this as tariffs shift the tax burden to the “less informed” poor folks who can’t afford tax attorneys. As a percentage of income, inflation resulting from tariffs is easily affordable if you happen to have a few hundred million dollars lying around. For all others, it is just another tax.
What about all those manufacturing jobs that will happen when we put Americans back on the assembly lines? Well, for starters, those manufacturing plants don’t exist, and new plants would likely involve robots and not so many new jobs. You don’t have to go back to the McKinley era to see the direct results of high tariffs, Trump’s first bite at the tariff apple saw a loss of 245,000 jobs [Oxford Economics study].
The fact that the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, has also defended the new tariffs while admitting the distinct possibility of a recession, is frightening. Even more so is his claim that a recession will be worth it. I guess if you are a billionaire, like Lutnick, buying a new $2,500 iPhone, or finding that your new $56,000 SUV just added an additional $15,000 to cover the cost of the tariffs, it’s all just pocket lint or spare change you found between the couch cushions.
Yes, Trump and his fellow billionaires long for The Gilded Age of American History. These were the McKinley years of the late 19th century when rapid economic industrial growth was only matched in its grandeur by economic inequality, extreme poverty and labor exploitation. They would bring back the robber barons and rampant political corruption of that bygone era.
We are well on our way. Install the tariffs and use them to replace pesky income taxes. Eliminate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and all social programs that provide food, medicine, housing, national parks, and security to all. Get rid of those costly labor unions that force the wealthy to pay living wages. If you are old and can’t afford to live, just do what the Inuit did before the 1930s when senicide was popular, jump on the nearest ice flow before they are all gone.
Historical footnote: President McKinley did not live to serve his full term as he was shot by an anarchist, Leon Czolgosz, September 6, 1901. Justice was swift back then as Czolgosz was executed by electric chair just 53 days later. McKinley joined James A. Garfield and Abraham Lincoln as the third assassinated president. JFK was our fourth.
Graphic footnote: The accompanying picture of Mt. Denali was taken by me from a plane in 2013. It shows the added ice sculpture of a bust of Donald Trump being carved on the “worlds tallest mountain” [as measured from its nearest land base]. Rest assured, with an annual snowfall of 77”, the bust would be covered in just a few years. If that didn't do it, climate change will eventually turn it into a muddy puddle
