Tracing Trump's Aggressive Tariff Strategy Back to the 1980s

1. Tracing Trump's Aggressive Tariff Strategy Back to the 1980s WSJ

Trump Forged His Ideas on Trade in the 1980s—and Never Deviated. The president has been consistent on trade for decades, unlike on other issues, dating to the rise of Japan as a global economic power.

I have to admit I bristled every time President Trump claimed that China is paying the tariffs on Chinese exports – just misleading his base again, I thought. Then, a couple of days ago, I read reporting by Jonathan Swan in Axios:

• ‘I've asked several current and former administration officials whether Trump actually believes that China pays the tariffs — rather than the reality that U.S. importers and consumers do.’
• ‘The consensus is "yes": That's what he actually believes.’
• ‘And as one former aide said: There’s little point trying to persuade Trump otherwise, because his belief in tariffs is "like theology."

Could it be that Mr. Trump also really believes that trade wars are easy to win and that the U.S. is in a great position in the U.S. China trade war, and that tariffs are his theology?

• The answers appear to be yes.
• Here’s some of what I learned.

‘Three decades before President Trump’s trade agenda jolted the world, he laid out his vision in full-page newspaper advertisements foreshadowing what was to come,’ writes Jacob M. Schlesinger of The New York Times in ‘Trump Forged His Ideas on Trade in the 1980s—and Never Deviated.’

• “Japan and other nations have been taking advantage of the United States” for years, wrote the New York real-estate developer, in the typewritten letter addressed “To The American People,” his signature affixed to the bottom.’
• “ ‘Tax’ these wealthy nations, not America. End our huge deficits, reduce our taxes…” the September 1987 ads demanded.’
• “Let’s not let our great country be laughed at anymore.”

‘Asked in a recent Wall Street Journal interview about the origin of his views on trade, Mr. Trump said, “I just hate to see our country taken advantage of. I would see cars, you know, pour in from Japan by the millions.”

• ‘In the interview, Mr. Trump called Japan “interchangeable with China, interchangeable with other countries. But it’s all the same thing.”

‘Shortly after the 1987 publication of Mr. Trump’s book, “The Art of the Deal,” he applied his world view in speeches and television interviews to a raging trade debate as Japan flooded the U.S. with inexpensive, high-quality autos and electronics.’

• ‘He continued gaining attention, and the book became a best seller.’

'He followed his newspaper ads—they ran in the New York Times, Washington Post and Boston Globe—and a brief flirtation with the 1988 presidential campaign with appearances on talk shows, telling hosts such as Larry King and Oprah Winfrey:’

• “I do get tired of seeing the country ripped off.” He told Diane Sawyer in 1989 he would impose a 15% to 20% tariff on Japanese imports, adding: “I’m not afraid of a trade war.”
• ‘He complained specifically about the persistent trade deficit with Japan costing the U.S. money, as well as Japanese “import quotas and tariffs to protect their own interest,” as he put it in his 1990 book “Trump: Surviving at the Top.”

PBS Frontline’s ‘Tracing Trump's Aggressive Tariff Strategy Back to the 1980s’ includes clips of Mr. Trump during the Japan years. Mr. Trump from the clips:

On Larry King: “The fact is that you don't have free trade”

• “We think of it as free trade, but we don't have free trade.”
• “And I think a lot of people are tired of watching other countries ripping off the United States.”
• “This is a great country.”

On Oprah: “They laugh at us because of our own stupidity”

• “We let Japan come in and dump everything right into our markets and everything it's not free trade.”
• “If you ever go to Japan right now and try to sell something forget about it out but just forget about it it's almost impossible.”

Back to the NYT article: ‘Mr. Trump made trade a signature issue during a brief run for the 2000 Reform Party presidential nomination.'

• “If President Trump does the negotiating…watch our trade deficit dwindle,” he wrote in a 1999 Wall Street Journal op-ed headlined “America Needs a President Like Me.”

'In 2012, ‘Mr. Trump also turned serious about exploring a presidential run.’

• ‘Considering a 2012 GOP bid, Mr. Trump met for two hours in August 2010 with Steve Bannon, co-founder of the Breitbart News website that shared Mr. Trump’s views on trade and immigration.’
• ‘Mr. Bannon was struck by the developer’s familiarity and focus on trade.’

Again in the PBS Frontline’s ‘Tracing Trump's Aggressive Tariff Strategy Back to the 1980s’ an interview clip with Steve Bannon about his 2012 meeting with Mr. Trump, in which he said:

• “The first time I ever met Trump I was set to be unimpressed. I was actually very impressed.”
• “Now he didn't know a lot of details, he knew almost no policy.”
• “But what I found most extraordinary was when we got to the section on China, which I kind of threw out, out of a two-hour meeting almost 30 minutes or more was all about China.”
• “We’ve got a remember a lot of this he was just reciting everything you'd heard from Lou Dobbs.”
• “He's been a guy that's watched Lou Dobbs for 30 or 40 years and the only thing he had formed as a worldview was China.”

About Mr. Trump’s winning 2016 message, Mr. Bannon says:

• “He talked in this kind of vernacular that kind of hit people in the gut.”
• “Particularly he talked about trade and jobs - job shipping overseas was his message to these people on trade: China's to blame.”
• “The messages are very simple: the elite shipped the jobs overseas, and I'm going to bring them back.”

Watch Frontline’s excellent report ‘Trump’s Trade War,’ a 55m full video with great interviews and commentary.

• ‘The inside story of President Trump’s gamble to confront China over trade.’