Commentary by Stephen Macaulay
This isn’t too difficult to understand.
President Trump is showing—and has been showing—he and his enablers don’t know what they are doing.
Let’s take a simple example from something that doesn’t get the attention it deserves—because there are too many other things that have piled on, obscuring it from view.
The tariffs.
It may be hard to believe, but it has been more than a year since Trump announced “Liberation Day,” an ill-chosen name for a disastrous program.
First of all, he applied 10% tariffs across the board, even on countries with which the US has a trade surplus.
Realize that no one is forcing Americans to buy things from elsewhere. We want to.
So what did that do? Made it more difficult for Americans to buy what they want to.
Then there was bizarre math.
Someone (Howard Lutnick? Peter Navarro?) took a given country’s US trade deficit, divided it by its exports to the US, and divided by two. That was the tariff rate charged. It ranged from 20% to European Union countries to 49% on Cambodia.
As time has gone on there have been so-called “deals” cut so that the tariff rates with certain countries have been adjusted. Sometimes up. Sometimes down.
It seems the adjustments are primarily predicated on Trump’s personal predilections.
This is not policy.
This is one man wielding power to make himself feel better while making Americans less better off, despite what he might argue about the manifold benefits.
One of the biggest arguments Trump and his acolytes for tariffs repeatedly made is that the tariffs would lead to more manufacturing investments by foreign companies, which would result in a massive resurgence in manufacturing jobs in the US —manufacturing jobs, they maintained, were stolen by these foreigners.
According to figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, since Liberation Day there has been a loss of 5,000 manufacturing jobs in the country. A comparatively small number (unless you are one of the 5,000) but opposite of what has been and what continues to be claimed by the Trump Administration.
Or let’s take some figures from the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).
It recently reported, “Manufacturing employment increased in March, gaining 15,000 from February,” which is good news, but then it goes on: “Employment in the sector has been in decline over the past few years and is below pre-pandemic levels.”
No, no big tariff-powered boom.
And NAM has this, which ought to make Joe Biden feel better: “Durable goods job openings decreased by 32,000 in February to 298,000, while nondurable goods job openings fell by 39,000 to 141,000. This number of openings is back near the pre-pandemic (2017–2019) range, wherein the average number of openings in the sector was 432,000, but remains below the average of 756,000 exhibited between 2021 and 2023.” [emphasis added]
That’s right, below the opportunities available during the Biden years.
Another part of the Promises Made, Promises Unkept is in construction. That, too, was going to boom in the Golden Age.
But according to NAM: “Manufacturing construction spending has slowed after soaring dramatically in 2022 and 2023. Down 15.0% year-over-year in January, private manufacturing construction spending has been in decline since February 2025.” [emphasis, again, added]
Again: “soaring dramatically in 2022 and 2023.” Pre-Trump. Pre-tariffs.
As for the tariffs in this space, NAM says: “High construction material prices and economic uncertainty threaten to further inhibit growth in the months ahead.”
According to the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB): “Data from the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) April 2025 survey reveals that builders estimate a typical cost effect from recent tariff actions at $10,900 per home. More than 60% of builders surveyed by NAHB have reported seeing higher costs due to tariffs.”
That was a year ago.
The good news for homebuilders — and consequently home buyers — is the Supreme Court striking down the tariffs Trump imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. This means such things as some appliances and HVAC systems and other items no longer have the additional tax.
However, there are still things under the Section 232 and Section 301 tariffs. Section 232 is the application of tariffs under national security concerns.
Of course Canadian softwood lumber is a threat to national security, to say nothing of kitchen cabinets and vanities.
Can any reasonable person see those tariffs as being something other than spite?
If there is any doubt about the cavalier nature of the application of tariffs by Trump, consider his decision made last week after meeting with King Charles III.
Scotch, according to the internationally accepted Geographical Indication, can only be made in Scotland.
Those who live in the US who want to drink authentic Scotch were hit with a 10% tariff. Again, here’s a case where Americans want to buy something that they can only buy from abroad — there is nothing unfair about it — yet are hit with a tariff.
This is akin to the 10% Liberation Day tariff put on bananas. The banana tariffs were rolled back via an executive order in November 2025, along with coffee and orange juice.
Clearly there was nothing tactical or strategic or even economic about those tariffs.
So last week, after the meeting with the actual king, Trump announced the 10% tariff on Scotch is being removed.
Again: Why?
Perhaps it has something to do with a picture Trump posted on social media last week showing him and Charles together.
The caption: “TWO KINGS.”
Are the tariffs an economic tool or simply something that is applied and removed by ostensibly royal whim?
Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.
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