Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” — this Wednesday, when the president plans to slap even more tariffs on imports from around the world — has any number of goals, depending on who you ask.
To hear Trump and his officials tell it, the trade war is variously intended to raise revenue, bolster America’s national security, force other countries to accept Trump’s demands about unrelated policy issues, reshape American consumption habits, bring more manufacturing to the United States, compel Canada to become the 51st state, and/or convince other countries to expand market access to American goods.
Those contradictory goals don’t offer lawmakers much reason to believe that this will be a precise or short-lived trade war — even though that’s what most of them are hoping for, as they hear from companies in their districts facing higher prices and retaliation from other countries.