Scott Lincicome

When the Trump administration took a 10 percent stake in semiconductor giant Intel last year, I argued that it was a costly mistake and an affront to American free enterprise. President Donald Trump d

Mere hours after the Trump administration's latest tariff scheme launched on July 24, the government

Listen to this article The US manufacturing sector has been on a nice run in 2026, and some Trump administration officials and protectionist pundits are crediting the president's tariffs.

Mere hours after the Trump administration's latest tariff scheme launched on July 24, the government was sued again by the same small businesses that had already defeated prior White House tariff shenanigans, most notably at the Supreme Court.

6 charts that say no.

After US-Canada trade talks collapsed Friday, the United States imposed a 50% tariff on a long list of Canadian goods via the never-used Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer went on TV first thing Monday in an attempt to calm financial markets with some basic tariff math. He said the new action hits a small percentage of Canadian imports into the US and an even smaller share of consumption, so there’s “no possible way it can really affect US well-being.”

Some members of Congress seem increasingly interested in reasserting some congressional authority over trade policy—even if these efforts do not amount to wholesale reform.

By these metrics, the tariff-first approach to U.S. foreign policy has been a demonstrable failure.

Research shows that around half of all U.S. tariffs were absorbed by importers last year instead of passed on to customers and end-consumers.

Mere hours after the Trump administration's latest tariff scheme launched on July 24, the government was sued again by the same small businesses that had already defeated prior White House tariff shenanigans, most notably at the Supreme Court.