The trade war is an act of hubris — which is what the modern presidency is built for. My column in today’s paper:

Even for President Donald Trump, the trade war is an act of astonishing hubris. When nearly all economists, the markets and the public are registering their belief that a course of action will harm the country, it takes a lot of confidence in one’s own ideas to persist anyway.
Yet viewed from a certain angle, the tariffs are exactly the kind of thing Americans always say we want from government officials. Trump campaigned on raising tariffs to revive manufacturing and force other countries to treat the United States better, and he is following through on his promise without much worry about the short-term consequences — including for his own poll numbers. If we dislike the results, perhaps we should reconsider this popular conception of how presidents should govern. . . .