Trump's Planned Tariffs Show Once Again That He's No Republican

SAN DIEGO -- Since he entered politics, President-elect Donald Trump has been called lots of names. But there is one label that doesn't quite fit, and it never has. Looking at his Cabinet picks and his plans for a second term, you can't very well call him a Republican.

To compare his Cabinet selections to a clown show would be an insult to clowns. His picks make a mockery of what used to be the five pillars of the Grand Ol 'Party: morality, merit, accountability, family values and respect for the rule of law.

It's not just that so many of the nominees are absurdly unqualified. That's already a big problem. It's also that they're so wildly off-brand for what you would normally expect from a Republican administration. When did the GOP go AWOL?

I realize that what I'm about to say will be of no concern to my Trump-loving Latino friends back home in my beloved Central California. That crew is mucho MAGA. And while most of these folks see themselves as conservative, they don't always identify as Republicans. Many of those who do see themselves as part of the GOP lost faith in the Republican Party long ago. At this point, their loyalty lies with just one man: Trump.

This week, the president-elect rattled the hemisphere when he announced on his social media platform Truth Social that he would sign an executive order on his first day in office imposing a 25% tariff on all imports into the United States from Mexico and Canada. In another post on Truth Social, Trump also said that he would add an additional 10% tariff on top of those tariffs that already exist on Chinese products coming into the United States.

Of course, tariffs -- most notably on steel and aluminum imports coming from Mexico, Canada and the European Union -- were a signature item of Trump's first term. Back then, the argument in favor of levying what is essentially a separate tax on imports was hinged on the assumption that any extra cost would likely be passed onto consumers. If foreign goods were more expensive, the argument went, U.S. consumers would have a greater incentive to "buy American."

Frankly, that's the kind of thing you typically hear from union-friendly Democrats who represent states in the Rust Belt. Unions that preach the virtues of protectionism love tariffs because tampering with free trade might help keep affordable foreign goods out of the market.

For his second term, Trump has even bigger plans for tariffs. He wants to use them as part of an elaborate blackmail scheme in the battle against illegal immigration and drug trafficking. He is convinced that Mexico, Canada and China -- by the way, the top three trading partners of the United States in that order -- have the "absolute right and power" to stop the flow of drugs and immigrants into the United States. Tariffs will motivate these countries to lend a hand, Trump insists, or they will "pay a very big price."

I don't want to spoil the ending. But Trump's tariffs aren't going to work the way he thinks they will.

This is nothing new. Remember the "big beautiful wall" along the entire U.S.-Mexico border which was going to be paid for by our southern neighbor. How did that go?

If Trump's first experiment with tariffs is any indication, the far more likely scenario is that those countries that he hits with tariffs will hit back by leveling their own tariffs on U.S. goods seeking access to their markets. This will hurt, among others, U.S. farmers who export almonds to China, peaches to Canada and corn to Mexico.

I grew up around farmers in Central California, and I've spoken to many different farm groups over the last few decades. These are conservative folks, and many of them support Trump -- even when doing so works against their own best interests.

At the end of the day, Trump is blackmailing the wrong people. With regard to both illegal drugs and undocumented immigrants, traffickers provide the supply because Americans provide the demand. If he really wants to get tough with someone, he could start by browbeating the American people -- including his MAGA followers.

Once upon a time, Republicans used to be the party of free trade, open markets and international commerce. Not anymore.

Under Trump, what the Republican Party used to be is just a fairy tale. And what replaced it doesn't come with a happy ending.

========

To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.