I think the author is wrong to believe that President Trump would not consider the results of tariffs.
It is a shame someone as bright and talented as Ben doesn’t see what Trump is doing with the tariffs. All our exports are already being hit with tariffs from other countries. Trump raises the stakes and gets all these countries to come out and admit tariffs are bad. Then he will propose....ok, let’s get rid of tariffs. The EU talks themselves into doing what they really don’t want to do. He did the same thing with Rocket Man.
Disrupt, then appease. Trump is winning, the US is winning and I am not tired of it yet.
For example, if you ask Ben "OK, of course in general you're right that all policy has unintended consequences, what would YOU do as president to counteract the fact that other countries have been doing this to us for years?
Secondly, (And Ben probably knows this,) Trump's tariffs are not intended as 'policy.' They are essentially a threat (negotiating position.) He is saying "If you really want to keep this bad behavior up, I promise my behavior will be far worse than yours."
It's the same as his Tweet months ago to Un -> My button is way bigger than yours.
So -> I like Ben, usually he has OK logic, and he's one of the main ones out there fighting the idea war for us, but he's simplistic and he 100% misses the point here if he tries to apply it to Trump's tariffs, because the tariffs are not policy, they are missiles.
Yes, Ben, duh, policy has unintended consequences and this is a good introductory class on that. However, this is the wrong example and it makes you look dumb, which you're not.