President Donald Trump is using "obviously stupid" economics, David Frum, a former George W. Bush speechwriter, complained Thursday on Bluesky.
"There are two economic ideas behind the Trump tariffs. One is obviously very stupid. The other is also very stupid, but less obviously so," Frum wrote in a thread about the tariffs and what at least one major corporation is referring to as "economic uncertainty."
He alleged that the Trump administration is "failing on almost every count, and Americans will pay the heavy cost soon - and for a long time."
The "stupid idea" is that he sees Trump trying to return the United States "to the industrial self-sufficiency of 1913 without regard to cost or value."
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"Americans should manufacture their own athletic shoes and door hinges and plastic tubs, and if that requires a 125% protective tariff ... so be it!" he said.
Last week, Trump's trade announcement included several references to the year 1913. As the BBC explains, the year was a turning point for the U.S. when the government lowered tariffs and created the federal income tax.
"But notice that the actual complaint here is: foreigners are too willing to buy U.S. debt; too eager to commit their money in U.S. equities," Frum said. "What kind of crazy theory regards it as a problem that U.S. debt is too safe, U.S. investments too attractive? Yet if it really is a problem that too much foreign capital is flowing into the U.S., here's a solution: balance the U.S. federal budget so that there is less U.S. debt for foreigners to buy. The capital flows would diminish without waging economic war vs. the whole planet."
Instead, he said that a "rational approach" would be to resist demands for an "enormous tax cut" for what he alleges are "GOP donors," while compelling Trump "to do some real work instead of insulting and abusing people."
Frum also argued that it's "easy" to operate economic policy that is "good enough." To him, that means "don't run big fiscal deficits, don't over-regulate business, don't under-regulate banks, keep the infrastructure up to date, educate the next generation, uphold honest justice, trade freely with the world."
Frum provided a much more detailed explanation of the thread in his YouTube show for The Atlantic.
See his full commentary below or at the link here.