Trump tariffs are a work in progress … except there’s been no progress
Here’s yesterday’s headline from CNBC: “U.S. trade deficit hits $106.billion, widest since just before Trump tariffs enacted last year.”
That deflating news comes as no surprise.
Along with a ton of other people who have even a particle of knowledge on the subject, I’ve been pounding on Trump’s tariff policy since his first term. Basically, we skeptics argued that the president's tariff plan is bad for the economy and won’t do much good for our balance of trade.
Well, much as I hate to say ‘I told you so’ … I told you so.
August’s balance of trade numbers just came out, and at $106.5 billion, it's the widest gap since that jingoistic “liberation day” speech on April 2, 2025, which he said was “a date that will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America's destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to Make America Wealthy Again."
Trump then held up a chart, later widely ridiculed, which he claimed was proof that “foreign leaders have stolen our jobs, foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories, and foreign scavengers have torn apart our once beautiful American dream.”
Looking for Trump-friendly support somewhere, anywhere, I find that supporters of the president’s trade policies are concentrated in a strongly conservative wing of the Republican party. Outside of that circle I can’t find much in the way of agreement with Trump, particularly among experts in the field.
Fact is, there isn’t much in the way of results that indicate Trump’s tariffs have done any good.
As to Trump’s rhetoric on “liberation day,” it was not only head-shakingly hyperbolic, it was all wrong.
Trump’s tariffs have hurt, not helped, the American economy. AI sums it up: “These import taxes function as a direct financial burden that U.S. companies and families ultimately pay.”
Despite August’s leap to the upside, the overall 2026 trade deficit is lower than last year (by 20%) – an outcome which is to be expected after Trump’s tariff frenzy. As to positive gains for the economy, mmm, the reduction has yet to bear any fruit. So far this year GDP growth is loping along at around 2%, about unchanged from 2025. As to inflation, this year’s rate of 3.37% is considerably higher than 2025’s 2.68%.
Researchers at the Federal Reserve Board last spring found that Trump’s tariffs have contributed nearly a percentage point to inflation, an outcome that was widely predicted by mainstream economists, including 16 Nobel laureates.
Trump ignored ample counsel and proceeded to turn his half-baked tariff scheme into a fully-baked tariff scam.
John Tsitrian is a businessman and writer from the Black Hills. He was a weekly columnist for the Rapid City Journal for 20 years. His articles and commentary have also appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post and The Omaha World-Herald. Tsitrian served in the Marines for three years (1966-69), including a 13-month tour of duty as a radioman in Vietnam. Republish with permission.
Photo: public domain, wikimedia commons
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