I understand that Trump wants to do something about illegal immigration, especially since Congress is so impotent on the issue... and has been for years. But Trump doesn't seem to understand that tariffs are essentially taxes. So I have to agree with Lighthizer and Mnuchin that this is not the correct tactic to deal with this issue. When you raise costs for businesses (whether it's taxes, tariffs, mandates, regulations, etc.), they simply pass on that cost increase to consumers. And to be honest, him bragging about being Tariff Man or President Tariff (or whatever cutesy name he was giving himself) shows that he doesn't get that. Not every economic or trade problem can be solved with tariffs. I support what he's trying to do with respect to the Chinese. But a two front trade war (poking Europe and Japan) is bad enough. A three front trade war is all but unwinnable. Why? Well, even if you "win", if you're successful in weakening all of your opponents, then there's a damn good chance you could push the world into a global recession.
I agree, Mexico and the corrupt government there needs to be dealt with. I just think the tariffs will bite us on the ass harder than them in the long run. The low cost labor jobs that moved there will only come back here (for the most part) if/when they're done by robots.
