Despite the fact that Mitch McConnell essentially safe-walked the two Trump impeachments of the first term, it is a fact that it’s been obvious that McConnell has never liked Trump and that Trump – as he is always want to do, hates the fact that McConnell refuses to come with bended knee. Thus it is that the two are in a near-constant state of Cold War, one that occasionally threatens to really heat up. And there is nothing like the crossroads of big money and stupid policy around which to get it on for real. It is happening as McConnell took to the Louisville Courier-Journal to bash Trump’s tariff policy.
McConnell’s column is fairly well-written, going back through the history of tariffs, including the role they likely played in kicking off the Great Depression, and then up through today on the ultimate consequences, higher prices, and less trade. Per McConnell in his essay:
But no matter our best intentions, tariffs are bad policy. As Sen. Rand Paul, put it: “Tariffs are simply taxes… Taxing trade will mean less trade and higher prices.” So Republicans ought to be clear-eyed about the full, unadulterated impact of tariffs as we work to restore sound fiscal policy to our government.
Blanket tariffs make it more expensive to do business in America, driving up costs for consumers across the board. These aren’t just abstract concerns.
Abstract? Hardly, as McConnell writes. It is impossible to put blanket tariffs on everything and not see a near direct corresponding increase in prices, this would be especially true with China, which makes both parts and products, thus prices could near double. This is really stupid policy.
There is almost only one context in which tariffs are invaluable and it is when an industry is subsidized by a foreign government such that a company can dump product in the U.S. at artificially low prices, thus under-cutting American companies. Typical examples are timber and aluminum. These blanket tariffs are meant to effectuate policy such as tightening the border, except it is near impossible to measure such actions against the goals to remove the tariffs. So how do they encourage change at the border? One can argue that they don’t and won’t because it is stupid to try to effectuate policy through tariffs.
McConnell seems to understand this all too well and writes primarily about the impacts on Kentucky companies. Remember, McConnell has to persuade all his red-hatted voters that he knows better than Trump. They will likely only believe McConnell when they see prices going up or a Kentucky product suddenly becomes harder to sell.
Broad-based tariffs could have long-term consequences right in our backyard. Consider our state’s 75,000 family farms that sell their crops around the globe, or the hardworking Kentuckians who craft 95% of the world’s bourbon, or our auto industry that relies on global supply chains to support the livelihoods of thousands of workers in the commonwealth.
In a trade war each of those products will become more expensive in the other countries, thus limiting growth. Free trade is a lot of things (An invitation to get rich without concerns about environmental impact, etc.) but it is both efficient and preferable to suddenly imposed blanket tariffs.
Given that the Senate eventually has to approve these actions, or at least can address the moves in budget matters, it will be interesting to see how this McConnell-Trump fight goes. With McConnell retiring in 2026, he will increasingly look in his big bag of f**ks and have trouble finding any to give. Not that McConnell is ever a hero to anything (We remember, Mitch!), but he is a pain in the ass to Trump, one that can still garner a lot of support in the Senate.
And if we know one thing about the GOP it is that it will bend anything necessary to placate big money. It is the one thing behind which it might fight Donald Trump – at least some of them. We will see.
God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and on X at @JasonMiciak, and now on Bluesky (Where you should also be).
Mitch is right. MAGA can f itself.