Tariffs Are Trump’s Shock And Awe
In order for the “Liberation” to happen, bold measures need to be taken in order for an entity to get its “freedom”. President Donald Trump began this trade war with across-the-board tariffs against our trading partners. This nuclear bomb has rocked markets across the globe. Will they have the desired effect of leveling the playing field, or will it crash the economy? Economist Dr Matt Will joined Tony Katz Today to discuss.
I describe this as the shock and awe moment for President Trump. Can he get the world to give him a better trade deal? Or has he just sent America on a pretty bad course where everything’s going to cost more? And the answer is, well, what do you politically believe? But that’s not an answer. There’s no panic in me because as we know this is exactly who Trump is. You didn’t know that Trump was a protectionist? Well, then you didn’t know Trump, that Trump was a believer in tariffs for years, decades. Then you didn’t know Trump. That said, maybe this is more than people expected. Dr Matt Will joins us, economist at the University of Indianapolis. I’m going to play a little devil’s advocate with you, sir. We’re gonna play a little good cop, bad cop, because we both are on the basic page together: Tariffs are taxes. You and I have never disagreed with this philosophy. You were a fan of Trump’s trade practices in the first term. You’re more bothered by what you’re seeing now. You see the unveiling yesterday, you see all of the tariffs that are out there. What was your first reaction?
My first reaction was this is the nuclear bomb. It was much more than I expected. I had no idea he would go this far, but you stated it. Correctly, you said that he’s not been shy about this. He’s been a fan of terrorists his entire life, but I didn’t think he would go from tactic to policy in one fell swoop across the board. It’s more than I ever anticipated as my reaction.. These are not reciprocal tariffs. Every, every knowledgeable person who’s looked at this, it’s not reciprocal tariffs, it’s trade deficit taxes. I actually found a website and in fact read, if you read the White House report from the very first paragraph, he talks about trade deficits. This is not about reciprocal tariffs. The tariffs are the weapon that he’s using to try to eliminate trade deficits.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThey are not reciprocal tariffs.
— Matt Will (@DrMattWill) April 4, 2025
Read the first two paragraphs!!
Trump’s Reciprocal Tariff Calculations Are Nonsense, Will Punish Mutually Beneficial Trade https://t.co/gnnKiYf5rD
So, we got to get this straight. This is not about reciprocal tariffs. This is about trade deficits.
In Part II of Tony’s interview:
If shock and awe was an economic policy, this would be the shock and awe policy. That was its purpose. And to that you start to get an understanding of maybe what Trump is after. Trump is after a reset of the mentality of the world economy and America’s place in it. Am I off base in your view, in that analysis?
Listen to the 2 Part interview in full here:Â
Archived episodes here:
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