WSJ: Why Trump Wants Tariffs
President Donald Trump’s hastily kludged together tariff plan has global financial markets swooning. His plan has accomplished two things that befuddled Democrats couldn’t: Tariffs have plunged Mr. Trump into the first true crisis of his second term, and they have American voters wondering if the president is fit for office.
It is much too early, however, to draft obituaries either for the Trump presidency or the MAGA movement. If there is one lesson since the president descended the escalator at Trump Tower in 2015, it is not to write this man off. A guy who can turn a mug shot into a presidential portrait should never be discounted, and disasters that would ruin lesser talents leave him unfazed.
What we are seeing is classic Trump. The president believes in himself and his core intuitions and convictions. He believes the analysts and policymakers who disagree with him are foolish and weak. When he encounters resistance, his instinct isn’t to compromise and reconsider. It’s to double down on his bets, hype up the drama and intimidate his opponents through bold strokes and tough threats. Show him a Gordian knot and he whips out his sword.
As his policies at home and abroad encounter resistance—a resistance sometimes grounded less in the obstinacy of his enemies than in the unyielding nature of facts—Mr. Trump becomes more determined. This method has worked for him in the past, and he believes it will work for him now.