Free Trade

Eric Boehm | 5.7.2025 2:05 PM

President Donald Trump has offered lots of different reasons for hiking tariffs on American imports. He's said that tariffs are going to make the country "rich and strong" and that they will boost tax revenue, reduce the trade deficit, and create leverage for future trade negotiations.

Many of those arguments are economically illiterate, counterproductive, or contradictory.

But the president's latest argument might be the most foolish—and most socialist—that he's rolled out yet: America is one big department store, and Trump is the general manger.

"Think of us as a super luxury store, a store that has the goods," Trump said on Tuesday while meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. "You're going to come and you're going to pay a price, and we're going to give you a very good price."

This is the second time that Trump has reached for this analogy in the past few days, which makes it seem less like a random thought that popped into his head and more like an intentional messaging strategy. Last month, in an interview with........

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