Wall Street Journal knocks Trump over ‘dumbest tariff plunge’

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board slammed President Trump on Monday, calling his plan to place tariffs on other countries the “dumbest tariff plunge.”

The board, in an editorial published Monday, noted Trump often likes to refer to the stock market as an economic indicator that his policies are successful.

It then questioned what he thought about Monday’s plunge, considering the Dow Jones took a 650-point drop after it was confirmed Trump intended to implement his tariff plan a day later on Mexico, Canada and China.

“We’ve courted Mr. Trump’s ire by calling the Mexico and Canada levies the ‘dumbest’ in history, and we may have understated the point,” the Journal wrote. “Mr. Trump is whacking friends, not adversaries.”

The editorial board noted the automobile industry in the U.S. will be severely impacted, as the additional taxes will hit every cross-border transaction and cars can cross a border “as many as eight times” while being assembled.

Americans awoke Tuesday to an intensifying trade war as Trump’s 25 percent tariff on Mexico and Canada and the new 10 percent tariff on China were imposed.

Canada in retaliation hit the U.S. with 25 percent tariffs on $30 billion in goods, and Mexico is expected to announce its own tariffs Sunday.

The Journal explained it’s not clear how long Trump will keep the tariffs in place as Americans begin to feel the effects, calling him “volatile.”

“Retaliation that hits certain states and businesses may also cause him to reconsider sooner than he imagines,” the board wrote. “Investors are trying to read this uncertainty as they also watch growing evidence of a slowing U.S. economy.”

“Unbridled Tariff Man was always going to be a big economic risk in a second term, and here we are,” it concluded.

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