The Wall Street Journal took President Donald Trump to task in a new editorial accusing him of throwing a “tantrum” over the Ronald Reagan-themed tariff ad sponsored by the government of the Canadian province of Ontario.
The ad, which featured clips of Reagan condemning protectionism back in 1987, provoked a furious response from Trump.
On Saturday, Trump told reporters he believed that that the ad was “AI or something.”
“They cheated on a commercial. Ronald Reagan loved tariffs, and they said he didn’t. And I guess it was AI or something. They cheated badly. Canada got caught cheating on a commercial, can you believe it?” mused the president.
“Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act, I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now.” wrote Trump in a barnburner of a Truth Social post slamming the “fraudulent advertisement.”
“Ronald Reagan LOVED Tariffs for purposes of National Security and the Economy,” he added.
The Journal begged to differ.
“The
The Supreme Court isn’t likely to be influenced by anything other than the law, but Mr. Trump’s Canada eruption is a good argument for the Justices to rein in his tariff power. The President gets angry at a TV ad and imposes on a whim a 10% tax on Americans who buy goods from their northern neighbor. Mr. Trump claims he’s not “a king,” but on tariffs he is acting like one, and without a proper delegation from Congress as the Constitution requires.It’s striking that Mr. Trump is so worried about a TV spot featuring a President who left the White House nearly 37 years ago. Don’t you know what time it is, as your apologists like to say, Mr. President? Perhaps Mr. Trump fears he’s going to lose the tariff case, and maybe he also knows his tariffs are unpopular.Mr. Trump is wrong about the Reagan speech, and he was wrong when he said on social media that “Ronald Reagan LOVED tariffs for purposes of National Security and the Economy.” The Gipper was a free trader. In the 1987 speech, Reagan was trying to
explain why he was making an exception to his free-trade policies on semiconductor imports from Japan.We remember that speech well, and its purpose was to head off a protectionist surge in Congress. The Gipper delivered it as fear of Japanese economic dominance was reaching its political peak in the U.S. “Japan as Number One” was the title of a popular, and misguided, book of the time.
“Reagan knew that tariffs are taxes, while Mr. Trump pretends they are paid by foreigners. Reagan knew protectionist barriers over time breed complacency and lack of innovation. Mr. Trump thinks he’s making American manufacturing great again, when he is really hurting U.S. manufacturers by burdening them with higher costs,” continued the editorial before concluding that “He [Trump] can boast about tariffs all he wants, but he shouldn’t get away with taking Reagan’s trade beliefs in vain.”