Donald Trump

What Republican on Capitol Hill is going to explain to Mr. Tariff Man that his whacked-out trade war with Canada, Mexico, China and soon the rest of the world is going to drive the country into recession—or worse.

Does Donald Trump even know that Americans are the ones most impacted by tariffs? He seems to believe that our trading partners are going to shell out for the tariffs with the proceeds going directly into the coffers of the US Treasury.

But we are smarter than that. According to a CBS/YouGov poll, 73 percent of Americans say tariffs are going to result in higher prices.

They are a tax on the American people, especially on those in the lower income brackets. A majority of the poll’s respondents oppose placing tariffs on Canada (62 percent), Europe (60 percent) and Mexico (56 percent).

We were hoodwinked. People elected Trump president to deal with inflation, which he promised to slay on Day 1—apparently after he ended Russia’s war invasion of Ukraine. They didn’t vote for Mr. Tariff Man.

The private sector supported Trump’s candidacy because it thought he would roll back federal regulations and extend the 2017 tax reform package. It didn’t vote for Mr. Tariff Man.

Trump is following in the footsteps of Joe Biden. People voted for Biden because they wanted to calm things down in the aftermath of the chaos of the first Trump administration. We wanted a "normal" president.

We didn’t vote for a guy who thought he was the reincarnation of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the midst of The Great Depression.

The American Rescue Plan Act was Biden’s mini-New Deal. It provided a whopping $1.9T in economic stimulus with the monies going for COVID-19 relief and infrastructure spending. That hefty financial boondoggle fueled the fires of inflation and eventually doomed Kamala Harris.

Similarly, Trump was elected to reduce inflation. His tariffs will spark it.

The president on March 11 promised to double the Canadian steel and aluminum tariffs to 50 percent, and to drive the country’s auto plants out of business.

General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have either manufacturing or assembly complexes in Canada. When I last checked, GM and Ford are still American companies. Chrysler is part of Amsterdam-headquartered Stellantis.

Trump’s tariffs on Canada are madness. There's no way to spin it.

Starry, starry night. There’s a line in the New York Times that explains the GOP’s obsequiousness when it comes to all things Trump.

Many Republicans relate to Trump “more as starry-eyed fans than as governing partners,” wrote NYT's Annie Karni and Jonathan Swan.

GOP Congressmen show up at meetings with Trump “armed with stacks of merchandise for him to sign for their friends and constituents.” How pathetic.

Wall Street Journal columnist Gerard Baker takes an edgier approach, calling Republicans members of the “sycophant caucus.”

He wants to know “what history will make of them if they don’t speak up now about the wanton vandalism to the country they were elected to protect.”

Don’t hold your breath, Gerry.

What happens to the idea of checks and balances when the majority of the Congressional branch are nothing more than fanboys and fangirls of the executive? The answer: nothing good.

What the heck.... Southwest Airlines is dropping its “bags fly for free” policy, which separated it from other carriers and generated much goodwill for the carrier over the years.

Southwest says it will still offer free bag options to its “most engaged customers,” which are “Rapid Rewards A-List Preferred members” and “Business Select” fares.

The “peasants” will have to shell out a yet undetermined fee to check their bags.

The bags fly for free policy was the No. 3 reason—after price and schedule—that people selected Southwest.

Eliminating that policy makes Southwest just another faceless airline. It offers a great opportunity for Southwest's competitors to snap up some of its former fans and customers.