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Tariffs

How Trump's Tariffs Undermine US Trustworthiness and Credibility—and What Can Be Done to Stop it

Economist David Hebert highlights an underappreciated danger of Trump's tariff mania. It's a serious problem, but one that can at least be mitigated.

Ilya Somin | 7.26.2026 2:01 PM

Trump announces his "Liberation Day" tariffs. April 2025. (CNP/AdMedia/Newscom)

I have previously written about how Trump's new Section 301 tariffs are illegal and harmful. The same goes for his earlier IEEPA tariffs (invalidated by the Supreme Court in a case I helped litigate), and Section 122 tariffs (struck down by the US Court of International Trade in May, though litigation continues). In an insightful recent article, economist David Hebert highlights an underappreciated type of harm caused by Trump's tariff policies that cannot be fully remedied by court decisions:

[T]here's a far worse outcome from this that cannot be undone by courts, elections, or policy reversals. These new tariffs and their justifications have only served to further destroy the relationships with allies and trading partners that we had previously taken as given. The costs of this will outlast every tariff schedule, court ruling, and this administration. They won't show up on BLS reports, BEA analyses, or Fed surveys. But they will be felt by every single American for years to come….

Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Mexico now face 10 percent tariffs for their alleged forced labor practices. Canada and Mexico are, of course, also parties to the USMCA, a trade agreement that this very president negotiated, signed, and called "a colossal victory" only to then walk away from. That same week, the President hit Canada with an additional 50 percent tariff on goods ranging from "wine to hockey sticks to cement" regardless of whether or not those goods qualify under the USMCA.

So in the span of a week, the White House effectively told Canada, our closest trading partner and ally, that America's word means nothing and then told them that they are complicit in forced labor.

An ordinary tariff is a tax. Trading partners are........

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