Missing the Point – ‘Grand Theft Government’

President Donald Trump, our country’s Liar-in-Chief, has promised certain of our nation’s wealthiest individuals very substantial tax savings in return for their having helped fund his re-election.  Who knows how much these tax savings will benefit the President and his family personally?

Trump’s problem is that he needs to fund those tax reductions for the rich without increasing our national debt.  To do that, he’s started a trade war, primarily against our closest allies, the proceeds from which he’ll use to balance his budget.  The question is, out of whose pockets will the tariffs be paid?

Tariffs are taxes imposed by our federal government that are paid by American consumers and companies when we purchase certain goods.  For example, 70% of the weight of your car is steel and aluminum, a good deal of which we import from Canada.  American auto manufacturers are now importing these metals from Canada at a higher price that includes the Trump tariff.  Understandably, to protect their profits, our auto manufacturers pass along the increased price of Canadian steel and aluminum to you and me when we buy a car.  Make no mistake about, the tariffs President Trump is imposing are taxes we are paying.  The effect on us is higher consumer prices.  If President Trump tells you otherwise, he’s lying.

The impact on the target country – Canada in my example – is reduced demand for major products it manufactures.  The higher the tariffs we impose, the greater the prices of the products on which the tariffs are levied, and the less of these products – from imported raw materials to finished goods – our people and companies can afford to import.

Yes, it’s true that raising the prices of imported products will increase the demand for the same materials we make here, in the United States.  That’s the good news Trump likes to tell us.  The bad news is that those materials and products aren’t sufficiently plentiful to handle all this additional demand and their prices will also rise.  Even if American companies are inclined to increase their domestic production capacities, doing so can take years.  In fact, the prices of American materials may have already been higher than their imported counterparts, to begin with – which may be why we were buying them from Canada and elsewhere in the first place.

The point is, many, many items made in the United States, like cars for example, will rise in price because their production involves raw material and components that are imported from countries – Canada and Mexico, for example – on which Trump has imposed Tariffs.

Needless to say, foreign companies in need of protecting their economies, will retaliate by imposing their own tariffs on goods they import from the United States.  Their objective is to reduce their country’s demand for American products.  Yes, it hurts their own economy to do so, but it’s the only action they can take to compel the Trump Presidency to pull the tariffs Trump has imposed, and that started this trade war.

Making matters worse, tariffs encourage a re-alignment of trade relationships in ways that may not benefit the imposer of those tariffs.  If Canada, for example, sells less steel and aluminum to the United States, to what country companies are they going to sell the products that we had been buying?  Maybe the Chinese?  At significantly lower prices than American companies are now paying because of the Trump tariffs.  How is that in our best interest?

If the problems we have with the countries – mostly our closest allies – on which tariffs are being imposed are real, why not take the time to work them out diplomatically?  What’s the rush?  The simple answer is that the problems are not real.  The rush is all about the budget and the lower taxes Trump promised his backers.  …Why do you think he’s moving so quickly, with reckless disregard, to reduce the size of our government?  It’s because he’s got to reduce federal government spending for the same reason he needs tariff revenues.

Of course, Trump couldn’t care less about all this carnage he is causing.  His malignant narcissism prohibits him from admitting failure and discourages him from canceling tariffs the allegedly historic value of which he has proclaimed with such vigor.  Desperate to honor promises he’s made to wealthy supporters to increase their after-tax incomes at your expense, he’s doubling down on his precious tariffs and while he continues trashing the federal government and relationships with our allies.

How is he getting away with this?  Because some years ago Congress gave World War II President Franklin Roosevelt the authority to impose tariffs when they were justified by a national economic emergency.  At the time, that emergency was The Great Depression and tariffs were intended to help stimulate a recovery.  Today, according to The White House fact sheet issued on February 1, 2025, “The extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs, including deadly fentanyl, constitutes a national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).”  The fact sheet refers to Canada, Mexico, and China.  Additional tariffs are also being imposed on our European allies.

The facts are, there is no such emergency.  It’s just a bogus excuse that no one is calling out.  Even if there was such an immigration and/or drug emergency – at the level of The Great Depression – the Trump tariffs are the counterproductive policy of a frightened, politically and intellectually impotent bully.  Without question, they will fail to resolve the problems for which there are many other more efficient, less hurtful, and less expensive options.

The only national emergency we’re facing is Donald Trump’s need to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans who support his Presidency.  And all Congress needs to do to stop this mess he’s creating is pass a law re-taking control over the process of imposing tariffs.

Unfortunately, Republicans in the House and Senate continue to allow President Trump to usurp their authority as a co-equal branch of government to whom the Constitution gives the power to impose taxes.  Congress imposes taxes which the executive branch is tasked to collect.  That’s the way it’s supposed to work, but doesn’t and won’t for as long as Congress continues to abdicate its powers.

Think about it.  If you believe that, while the President is a jerk, Congress is the problem for not acting to curtail his behavior, go to the websites for your Republican and Democratic Representatives and Senators.  Send them an email that demands, in clear and certain terms, that they take immediate action to cancel the tariffs President Trump has already and might continue to impose without the prior authorization of Congress.  It’s a simple but powerful thing that you can do.

If you like, I’ll draft the language of your email for you.  Just ask for assistance in the comment field below.  All you need to say is something like, “I am writing to urge you to introduce or co-sponsor legislation, without further delay, to cancel tariffs already imposed by President Trump and return control over the approval of new tariffs to Congress where it belongs, effective immediately.”  Words to that effect.  That’s all you need to say.  The email contact forms on Congressional websites are easy to fill out.  The process won’t take you more than a few minutes.  To find your Representative and Senators, use this link to go to Congress.gov and enter your address in the block under “Find Your Members.”

Make no mistake about it, the only national emergency we are facing is the reckless authoritarianism of a criminal, mentally ill huckster President in the process of committing a trillion-dollar “Grand Theft Government” – at the expense of everything our country has worked so hard and sacrificed so much, for so long, to build.

Yes, I just used a lot of seriously negative terms to describe our President in the previous paragraph.  Sadly, I believe that I can justify every word of it.  That said, If you disagree with any of my characterizations of his nature and behavior, say so and let’s talk about it.

If the Republicans block or defeat the measure your emails have encouraged, it’s proof positive of their complicity with President Trump.  Let them run on that record in 2026.

Thank you.  Now come on, let’s do this!

Les Cohen

Les Cohen is a long-term Marylander, having grown up in Annapolis.  Professionally, he writes and edits materials for business and political clients from his base of operations in Columbia, Maryland.  He has a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Economics.  Leave a comment or feel free to send him an email to [email protected].