Ben Shapiro Hammers Trump’s Tariffs, Warns They Are Likely Unconstitutional And Based On Backward Logic

Conservative talking head and founder of the Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro, hammered President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs on his show this week, noting that they are both “probably unconstitutional” and based on backward logic regarding trade deficits.

“Yesterday, President Trump declared that it was, in fact, Liberation Day, his giant tariff policy that he just dropped on the market unilaterally, probably unconstitutionally. Trump’s reciprocal tariffs imposed hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes on Americans be the largest tax increase since the Revenue Act of 1968, one of the biggest tax increases on American consumers in the history of America,” Shapiro said in a clip for Thursday’s show, adding:

Again, it’s going to cost American consumers, it will cost American producers who use inputs from other countries. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted immediately more than a thousand points. The S&P 500 plummeted more than 3%, the NASDAQ plummeting almost four and a half percent.

There are real world implications for this sort of stuff. Trade wars are in fact not good and not easy to win, particularly if you don’t actually have a plan. It is predicated on a bad idea of how international trade works. A fundamental misunderstanding of trade deficits. Trade deficits are an accounting procedure. Trade deficits have pretty much nothing to do with the health of an economy. I can name you a period in American history where there was a fairly large surplus in America’s balance of trade. The entire Great Depression.

During the episode, Shapiro elaborated on his issue with trade deficits driving Trump’s tariff policies.

“So the idea that every trade deficit someone is getting screwed is a zero-sum view of how economies work and it’s not true. As Thomas Sowell points out, the eminent economist, quote, ‘If the goods and services available to the American people are greater as a result of international trade, then Americans are wealthier, not poorer, regardless of whether there is a deficit or a surplus in the international balance of trade,’” he argued, adding:

In fact, I can name you a period in American history where there was a fairly large surplus in America’s balance of trade, the entire Great Depression.

Now, there were times in American history that were great where we also had a surplus. There were times in American history that sucked where we had a deficit, and times in American history that were great where we had a deficit. As it turns out, trade deficits have pretty much nothing to do with the health of an economy.

Notably, Trump also slapped tariffs on countries that the U.S. has a trade surplus with – like the U.K. and Australia.

Watch the clip above, full episode here.