President Donald Trump promised his tariffs would revitalize American industry. He apparently meant the lobbying industry.

Had Trump’s goal been to stimulate lobbying on tariffs and trade, he could not have executed a better trade policy. As you would expect, the lobbyists who are getting the most new business are close allies of Trump and his donors.

Building a wall of tariffs around the country has worked like building berms around a wetland: It’s caused the swamp to fill up.

During his campaign, Trump promised all sorts of tariffs on U.S. importers. His tariff rhetoric has been pretty constant through his first hundred days, even as his tariff policy has been the opposite of constant — tariffs on Canada and Mexico, tariffs off Canada and Mexico; tariffs on everybody, tariffs paused on everybody; tariffs on just China, but maybe not.

The inconstancy is not a bug in the rollout. It’s central to Trump’s tariff policy. For Trump, author of Art of the Deal, the main goal of trade policy is maximizing his own leverage. To maximize leverage one cannot stand........

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