President Trump declared that April 2 will be ‘Liberation Day’ for America. Just as we celebrate our political independence on the Fourth of July, we now have occasion this Second of April to celebrate America’s economic independence.
In addition to charging tariffs on key strategic products like automobiles and semiconductors, the president is set to impose reciprocal tariffs across the board. Basically, if foreign countries tax American products, then we will tax theirs at the same rate—tit for tat.
Thanks to President Trump, America will no longer be the ‘Free Space’ on China’s bingo board: it’s pay to play from now on.
To celebrate Liberation Day, I planned to write an article defending tariffs along economic lines—as I have done many times before. For example, in just the last few weeks, we covered why tariffs are economically necessary, why tariffs will not cause inflation, and how tariffs will create millions of jobs. I take these conclusions further in my new book, Reshore: How Tariffs Will Bring Our Jobs Home + Revive the American Dream, in which I make the definitive case against economic globalism and explain how long-run economic growth really works.
But at the end of the day, who cares? While the economic arguments are interesting—and seeking truth for the sake of truth is a noble pursuit—these beat around the bush. Why?
We do not worship the Golden Calf. Money is not our god. Economic growth is not America’s teleological justification—it is a means to an end, not the end itself.
Therefore, the most fitting article I could write to celebrate Liberation Day is one that explains some of the non-economic ways tariffs will benefit America—some of the ends that are justified even if tariffs cause some short-term pain. Here’s how tariffs make America safer, protect our sovereignty, and preserve our natural heritage.
No butter, no guns
The Second Amendment guarantees the right of every American citizen to bear arms. Many think this is the most important right. Why? Other rights are worthless unless they can be defended. Firearms safeguard freedom.
Tariffs are like economic firearms that protect American industry from offshoring. This makes America safer in two key ways. First, tariffs prevent America from growing dependent on imports for our survival, and second, they stop foreigners from looting the country with predatory trade policies.
Import dependency occurs when a country cannot sustain itself without imports. A perfect example of this was during the American Revolution, which almost failed because the Colonies could not manufacture enough cloth, cannons, or firearms to win the war. This is what happens when you fight your supplier! Thankfully, the French provided over 80,000 firearms, and the war was won.
President George Washington realized that import dependency was not just a weakness—it was life or death for the young United States. Washington wrote that America would only be free if she was “independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.” To this end, he championed the Tariff Act of 1789, designed to raise revenue and encourage domestic manufacturing.
Throughout the 19th century, America embraced the wisdom of tariffs. For example, the Tariff Act of 1816 unified America’s tariff policy and doubled the average rate. America flourished under high tariffs, becoming not only economically self-sufficient but also the largest industrial power in the world.
Unfortunately, America’s leaders embraced economic globalism in the 1970s, which resulted in large swathes of America’s industry offshoring to China. Consider that in 2024 America’s trade deficit in goods topped $1.2 trillion—we bought over a trillion dollars more than we sold.
And contrary to popular belief, we do not just import “junk”; we import large fractions of our steel, machine tools, automobiles, ships, and semiconductors. For example, 53.2 percent of imports from China were manufactured goods—10.8 percent of the overall total being computers. This is not junk—this is the lifeblood of a modern economy.
America depended on Great Britain for manufactured goods in the Revolutionary War—it almost cost the U.S. her freedom. America now depends on China for manufactured goods. Tariffs will reshore America’s factories, fixing this problem.
Tariffs will also help fix the second problem. For the last fifty years, we have spent an enormous amount of wealth abroad—buying the future we should be building. Consider that since 1974, America’s cumulative trade deficit is approximately $25 trillion (adjusted for inflation). This money directly funded the rise of China—now our chief rival.
Why are we financing rival states? I remember when everyone was worked up over USAID sending ~$40 billion per year abroad. Yet, this is a drop in the bucket of our trade deficit with China—where is the outrage? Tariffs will also address this problem by limiting capital outflows. America will be safer if we buy American.
Defending Westphalia
Money and power are two sides of the same coin. So too, economic globalism—epitomized by free trade agreements and cooperatives—is just the Tower of Babel by another name. Tariffs stand in direct opposition to both unified markets and unified states. Why? Economic integration inevitably leads to political unification.
Historical examples of this process can be found as far back as Greco-Roman antiquity. For example, Rome assimilated the cities of Latium not through violence but through trade and economic integration. Rome was the largest city in Latium, and as a result, Roman culture and standards were adopted through the region, not vice versa. Over time, the distinctions between Romans and other Latians blurred until they disappeared. All became Rome.
On the other side of the Mediterranean, the Delian League—a loose alliance of Greek city-states—was rapidly transformed into the Athenian Empire. At first, the League established a common treasury on the Island of Delos. Soon after, the League harmonized trade policies. As the largest city, Athenian norms were adopted by the League. Over time, Athens’ economic clout was leveraged into political clout. The treasury was moved to Athens, and voluntary contributions became tributary taxes.
A more recent example of this process occurred with the evolution of the EU. The EU’s foundations were laid with the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952, a trade agreement that harmonized supply chains of said critical resources. Not only would it be economically expedient, it was marketed by its architect, Robert Schuman, in 1950 as something that would “make war materially impossible.” From the beginning, European technocrats realized that economic integration would inevitably lead to political integration.
History proved them right. Trade agreement after trade agreement followed, each justified on economic grounds and supported by conservatives—who could say no to free trade or to the prosperity it promised? Perhaps the EU did enrich Europe, but at what cost?
A single market requires a single law: European nations sacrificed their political independence upon the altar of economic interdependence. Europe now shares an increasingly powerful legislature, single currency, and constitution—and if the EU’s architects have their way, Europe will once again have a Caesar.
America should take heed and raise high tariff walls to protect both its economic and political sovereignty.
O’ Bonnie Portmore, I am sorry to see / such a woeful destruction…
American conservatism has always been strongly tied to the land and manifested a deep love and respect for nature. Tariffs will protect the natural environment by ensuring that manufacturing remains in America—in accordance with our laws and environmental regulations.
Remember, when we offshore our factories, we also offshore the pollution. While this may sound good, we must remember that our atmosphere is a closed system—pollution from China does not stay in China; it pours down on our heads as acid rain. Eventually, we breathe in Beijing’s cancerous fumes. This is a big problem because foreign industries produce an order of magnitude more pollutants than do American factories—offshoring is poisoning America and the world.
Let us consider the problem of emissions. First, carbon dioxide (“CO2”) is not a pollutant—higher levels may even be beneficial for the biome. However, CO2 emissions are correlated with actual pollutants like sulfur or nitrogen dioxide or particulate matter—especially in Third World factories.
Comparing emissions data from China and America paints a grim picture. Consider that China produced 0.6kg of CO₂ per dollar of economic output in 2014. Conversely, America produced just 0.3kg of CO₂ for the same amount of economic output. This means that every factory that moves from Ohio to Shenzhen will at least double the emissions of said factory—and this probably understates the actual problem. Global pollution has skyrocketed, and this is largely because China industrialized on our dime.
Not only has the trade deficit increased global emissions by fueling China’s growth, but it has undermined America’s attempts to reduce emissions. The economy is not a closed system. When confronted with onerous environmental regulations, many American companies simply relocate their operations abroad.
Of course, emissions are not the only form of pollution. Consider that some 1.6 million square kilometers of the Pacific Ocean, an area roughly twice as large as Texas, is now covered by a floating blanket of plastic debris. Although most of the plastic particles are microscopic, they are causing massive harm to Earth’s ecosystems. Plastic eaten by sea creatures is also winding up in human bodies.
Plastic pollution is affecting the health of our children and could endanger the existence of humanity itself. In 2020, microplastics were found incorporated into the tissue of human placentas for the first time, indicating that newborn babies may be partially composed of inorganic tissue. While the long-term health consequences of being partially composed of plastic are not known, one can assume that they are not good.
In any case, almost all of the plastics and microplastics that are dumped in the world’s oceans come from Asia—not America, Europe, or any other region that the World Economic Forum and environmentalists blame for the world’s pollution problems. In fact, 80.99% of all plastic dumped into the ocean as of 2019 came from Asia.
The biggest culprit was the Philippines, which emitted 36.38% of all oceanic plastic in 2019. This is compared to 12.92% for India, 7.22% for China, and 0.25% for America. You read that right. The Philippines emits 145 times more plastic into the world’s oceans than does the entire USA. Every factory that moves from America to the Third World is an environmental tragedy of absurd proportions.
America’s environmental track record is not spotless. In fact, Americans pollute more per person than most of our cousins in Europe, Canada, and Australia. However, there is a world of difference between America’s environmental impact and that of developing countries like China, India, or the Philippines.
Tariffs will reshore America’s factories, and this has the potential to clean up the world—to the benefit of all humanity.
This Liberation Day, the media will be focusing on economic arguments—as if this were all that matters. America is not a gas station. It is a nation bound by blood and tradition. Tariffs will protect the American people—not just from the ravages of economic globalization—but from import dependency, creeping international law, and environmental destruction.
Even if the mainstream media is right, we will still have plenty of reasons to celebrate Tariff Liberation Day.
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