Financiers are not necessarily interested in maintaining a free market economy because that would mean more competition for them. They are the “establishment” that like the status quo. Special interests are very big on government interference to help them. Same as it ever was. The free market helps everyone but especially the little guy, the average American, and those wanting the opportunity to start their own business. The free market is the enemy of the unions, the special interests, and government.
The discussion was about tariffs, not free markets. Free market labor in the United States, with its emphasis on humanitarianism and the resulting legally binding and sometimes costly restrictions necessary to enforce the principle, cannot compete with other countries that virtually employ slave labor which dramatically lowers cost.