Democracy is evidently better for trade and the economy than dictatorship. Donald Trump has spent a year setting illegal tariffs by fiat, without collaborating or consulting with Congress. The result: a higher trade deficit, higher prices for consumers and businesses, fewer manufacturing jobs, $12 billion in additional federal assistance to partially compensate farmers for lost markets, billions of dollars of ill-gotten taxes that Trump has to refund, and, perhaps most devastatingly more America’s long-term economic vitality, a world that has largely said, “Forget America, let’s make our own deals“:
While the U.S. has been putting up its own tariff walls, other countries have been tearing theirs down.
“And we see it almost every day now, where new negotiations or new agreements are being reached without the United States,” [lawyer Ted] Murphy said.
Malaysia signed a trade agreement with the UAE. The U.K. signed one with almost the entire Pacific Rim. Europe has been on a free trade rampage.
“(Europe is) finalizing its deal with the Latin American bloc, MERCOSUR, then inking a deal with India, and just this week signing another agreement with Australia,” said Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics and trade at the Cato Institute [Sabri Ben-Achour, “After Tariffs, Global Trade Movers on Without U.S.,” Marketplace, 2026.04.01].
The White House has claimed to forge lots of trade deals of its own, but making those arbitrary moves without Congress leaves America’s trade partners guessing:
The U.S. has signed deals too, but those are very different. For starters, they’re not very detailed.
“Ambiguities mean uncertainty,” Lincicome said. “A vague deal with just a few broad terms… really hides tons of devils in the lack of details.”
For example, European Union countries have to pay a 15% tariff on the vast majority of exports to the U.S. — but the deal’s application to pharmaceuticals is unclear.
Businesses don’t like that. And the U.S. tariffs aren’t approved by Congress, so they can change at any time.
“The U.S. deals are not in any way binding,” said Jennifer Hillman, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.
So, other countries’ trade agreements have brought their companies certainty, while the U.S. agreements have brought U.S. companies the opposite [Ben-Achour, 2026.04.01].
Uncertainty stinks. Dictator Trump brings nothing but uncertainty.
If we were working out trade deals the usual way, with experts in the Executive Branch hashing out details with global partners and Congress advising, consulting, compromising, and then writing those deals into law, the United States would be in a lot stronger trade position than we are with a dictator wielding tariffs like an angry child. But a year of erratic tariffs and photo-op promises is the harmful dictatorship that Trump voters cheer and that Republicans in Congress refuse to check.
I just wish the reporting would say instead of just saying a tarrif on the U. K. A tax on Americans who buy products from the U. K. Sure it hurts the U. K. because the higher prices mean less sales because American citizens can’t afford the tax that’s being put on them. Its a direct tax on citizens and that is RARELY stressed. It needs to be. It takes a lot to break through to the Maga brain. It’s tiny you know.