“Would Tariff Man please take a summer vacation for the good of the nation?” the conservative-leaning board asked in a sharply worded editorial, using its new nickname for the president.
And it hit the president with a cold truth:
“For the record, since Mr. Trump has a fixation with trade deficits, the U.S. had a surplus with Canada last year when excluding $141 billion in crude oil imports. Canadian crude feeds refineries in the Midwest and some on the Gulf Coast that aren’t equipped to process U.S. shale blends. Crimping that flow would eliminate the overall trade deficit with Canada, but it would also raise costs for U.S. consumers, while sending dollars to the Middle East instead.”
The editorial concluded by condemning Trump’s overall trade policy style, writing: “Mr. Trump seems to think that his unpredictability is a negotiating advantage. But keeping trading partners guessing—along with investors and U.S. companies with global supply chains—isn’t a recipe for economic strength.”