Trump is proceeding with steel tariffs, but Rich and Co., on today’s Editors, are skeptical it will be beneficial for the country.
Charlie says, “I think an awful lot of it is . . . that Trump likes the idea of making steel and there are a lot of those people. I know some of them personally. They resonate with the idea of an America that makes things, and they believe that we are lesser when we don’t do that.”
“I just think steel is not one of these things,” he says. “This is the practical problem with the fetishization of steel. It’s not the same as saying, ‘We have to be able to build tanks and planes and ordnance.’ It’s not the same as saying, ‘We should bring some of our microchip production home.’”
Jim says, “I don’t think this is really the right solution,” but he points out that “China [is] trying to dump steel everywhere. The fact that we’re not the only ones doing this indicates that everybody’s facing the same problem. And it may well be that if everybody enacted tariffs, China would realize, ‘Huh, okay, maybe we can’t just dump all of our stuff everywhere else. We’re gonna have to reduce the size of our own domestic steel industry,’ and make those painful choices they’ve been putting off for decades.”
“I don’t see how we’re going to get the economic outcomes that the president seems to think we’re going to get from these,” says Noah. “Indeed, we’re probably going to get worse economic outcomes, but he seems to like them. And that’s the beginning, middle, and end of the conversation. And the problem is that Democrats like them, too.”
“We just don’t have a free trade party in this country. And so we’re going to have less and less free trade.”
The Editors podcast is recorded on Tuesdays and Fridays every week and is available wherever you listen to podcasts.