Conservative Columnist Lambasts 'Deliberately Ignorant' Trump - And the Right-Wing Media That Enables Him
President Donald Trump seems determined to start a full-scale trade war not only with China, but also, with neighbors and long-time allies Canada and Mexico—and Jennifer Rubin, right-wing columnist for the Washington Post, is calling the president out for a recent tweet promoting tariffs.
On August 15, Trump posted the following on Twitter: “Our Country was built on Tariffs, and Tariffs are now leading us to great new Trade Deals - as opposed to the horrible and unfair Trade Deals that I inherited as your President. Other Countries should not be allowed to come in and steal the wealth of our great U.S.A. No longer!”
Rubin, in a column published the following day, stressed that the type of trade war Trump is encouraging could be disastrous economically.
In the Washington Post, Rubin asserted, “Unless Trump wants to retreat to a 1776-sized economy or relive the Great Depression, care of Smoot-Hawley, it’s best we not follow the outdated mercantilist philosophy that was supplanted, fortunately, by Adam Smith, who deplored tariffs.”
Rubin went on to say, “It turns out a deliberately ignorant president is a menace to our democracy and economy (who knew?!). The staffers who rationalize his nonsensical pronouncements and the right-wing media that praise him are enabling a destructive president who, if allowed to succeed, would make us less free and less prosperous. Listening to him certainly makes our politics dumber.”
Tariffs, Rubin stressed, were not the principle upon which the U.S. was built.
The columnist wrote, “Our country was founded on a principle Trump often seems unacquainted with: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.’”
Rubin’s August 16 column was not the first time she took Trump to task for his trade policy. The 56-year-old Rubin has been equally critical of the president in previous columns, denouncing tariffs as a tax on U.S. consumers and explaining how tariffs could lead to higher prices for a long list of products.
Rubin’s articles have also appeared in right-wing publications like the National Review, Bill Kristol’s the Weekly Standard and PJ Media (formerly Pajamas Media).
