By Stephen Macaulay
One of the things that is underappreciated about Donald Trump is that he is a presidential historian.
How else to explain his pronouncements about William McKinley, 25th president of the United States?
Trump is bullish about McKinley because what is known as the “McKinley Tariff of 1890.” McKinley wasn’t president at the time of the act’s passage. He was a member of the House of Representatives. But when he was elected, McKinley pursued protectionist policies. So the Idol of Ohio is, well, an idol for at least one person. (You’d think JD Vance, fellow Ohioan, would talk up McKinley, but evidently economics isn’t his thing, fabulation is.)
Trump, of course, wants to apply tariffs to a greater extent than he did in his time in office. (To be fair, Biden has maintained many of them.)
But while Trump describes the dream of across-the-board tariffs of something of a panacea for all the economic woes of all Americans, according to the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan research organization that is thought to be business-friendly:
“The Trump administration imposed nearly $80 billion worth of new taxes on Americans by levying tariffs on thousands of products valued at approximately $380 billion in 2018 and 2019, amounting to one of the largest tax increases in decades.”
Tax increase?
According to the headline of a “fact sheet” produced by the White House on February 5, 2018, “President Donald J. Trump Achieved the Biggest Tax Cuts and Reforms in American History.”
Turns out, however, that wasn’t the case, as the Economic Recovery Act of 1981 signed by Ronald Reagan was. In fact, The Revenue Act of 1964 (Johnson), 1945 (Truman), 1948 (Truman), and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (Obama) were all bigger.
And then there’s that assessment of the Tax Foundation.
Well, no one said he is an economic historian.
But on the subject of American history, let’s go back to January 30, 1799, when the Logan Act was signed into law.
As the act opens:
“Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”
Vladimir Putin leads Russia. Russia is an enemy of the United States.
Yet Donald Trump is evidently his pal.
According to Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book War, after Trump left office he communicated with Putin an alleged seven times.
While we don’t know that to be the case, let’s consider this from the debate with Kamala Harris, when Trump was asked about the Russian attack on Ukraine:
“I want to get the war settled. I know Zelenskyy very well and I know Putin very well. I have a good relationship. And they respect your president. Okay? They respect me. They don't respect Biden. How would you respect him? Why? For what reason? He hasn't even made a phone call in two years to Putin. Hasn't spoken to anybody. They don't even try and get it. That is a war that's dying to be settled. I will get it settled before I even become president. If I win, when I'm President-elect, and what I'll do is I'll speak to one, I'll speak to the other, I'll get them together. That war would have never happened. And in fact when I saw Putin after I left, unfortunately left because our country has gone to hell, but after I left when I saw him building up soldiers, he did it after I left, I said oh, he must be negotiating. It must be a good strong point of negotiation.”
He also said:
“And I'll get the war with Ukraine and Russia ended. If I'm President-elect, I'll get it done before even becoming president.”
Sounds like he and Putin have kept a line open. And the Logan Act is still in effect.
But there is something that is claimed in Woodward’s book — and let’s face it, outside, primarily, members of Team Trump who cast aspersions in abundance with no factual basis for them, Woodward’s reporting has proven to be solid over the years — that should be more disturbing than Trump and Putin having a jaw-boning session about who knows what:
Trump, in 2020, reportedly sent Putin COVID testing equipment.
Equipment that was in short supply in the U.S. in 2020. The year that, according to the Centers for Disease Control, 350,831 American citizens died from COVID.
Presumably some of those people would have been saved had there been more available testing.
America first? Really.