Mr. Bill Kristol still being mostly correct. I’m not sure what to make of that.

All Trump’s Trade Wars (goes to the Weekly Standard)

To ask coherence of President Trump is to ask too much of a man with the attention span of a tweet, and for whom cognitive dissonance is not something he spends nights losing sleep over. So we have had large tax cuts, putting money into the pockets of consumers, which will enable them to increase their spending (saving is not in fashion in America at the moment). Which means they will buy more stuff, much of it imported, widening our already record trade deficit.

But the president doesn’t like trade deficits—job killers as he sees it—and so he has put tariffs on washing machines and solar panels and now is deciding what costs and restrictions to place on imports of steel and aluminium. A 1962 statute permits him to use tariffs or quotas if imports lead to “a weakening of our national economy that may impair national security.” Which he is assured by a report from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that imports of steel and aluminium do.

But our economy is strong, not “weakening,” the profit outlook for the steel industry is “rosy” according to the Wall Street Journal, and tariffs are opposed by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who is responsible for our natural security. All of which makes it difficult to understand how Ross’ Commerce Department reached the conclusion it did. Unless you know a bit of background.

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