Trump’s Still Taking the Hits – Where Are You America?

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SOMEWHERE IN AMERICA – For most of our lifetimes, America has played the sucker in the global economy. We’ve let other countries write the rules, dictate the terms, and hollow out our industry — all while smiling for the cameras and calling it “progress.” Factories closed. Jobs vanished. Supply chains went overseas. And the people in charge told us it was a sign of evolution — that we were “leading the way” into some enlightened new global order.

But on April 2nd, something changed. President Donald J. Trump finally slammed the brakes.

That day didn’t just mark a policy shift. It marked a national turning point. Trump rolled out a universal 10% tariff on all imports — across the board — and issued a targeted strike against serial abusers like China with penalties reaching 34%. It wasn’t a gamble. It was a line in the sand. And for once, it was America doing the drawing.

If you’re angry, good. You should be. But not at Trump. You should be furious at every president who came before him and watched this country get pillaged without lifting a finger.

This wasn’t the start of a trade war. It was the start of a reckoning.

For decades, countries that we label “partners” have treated us like fools. China has dumped steel into our markets, tanked prices, and crippled our domestic producers. The EU has shielded its own industries while punishing ours. Japan, South Korea, and others have wrapped their economies in protective layers of red tape — but walked right through our front door, tariff-free, and made billions doing it.

And what did we do? Rolled out the red carpet.

Washington’s answer to this lopsided arrangement has been to call it “free trade.” But that’s never what it was. It was free for them, and expensive for us. The truth is, we’ve been subsidizing the rise of foreign economies for 40 years — with our labor, our industry, and our dignity.

The same voices whining about tariffs now are the ones who cheered when factories closed in Indiana and Ohio, praising “efficiency” and “modernization” as American livelihoods evaporated. They told us we’d transition to a service economy — just learn to code, work in finance, or flip houses. Never mind the fact that a nation that can’t build anything can’t survive anything.

Trump’s move is about more than trade. It’s about national strength.

Look at steel and aluminum. In 2018, Trump slapped tariffs on both to combat dumping and secure the supply chains our military depends on. Critics cried foul, claiming it would spark chaos. Instead, it sparked reinvestment. Mills restarted. Production rose. Workers came back. Meanwhile, the usual suspects in D.C. kept repeating the same tired lines about “rules-based order” — as if China has ever played by any rules that didn’t serve its own interest.

And the betrayal hasn’t stopped at the assembly line.

Farmers have been left out to dry for years. Take California’s almond growers — part of an agriculture sector that moves nearly $25 billion in exports. These are people who pour their lives into feeding the world. But when countries like China and India slapped retaliatory tariffs on them, did previous presidents fight back? No. They shrugged. Said it was part of the “global game.” Translation: You’re a pawn, and you’re on your own.

This country was built by the kind of people who don’t tolerate being cheated. Yet somehow, we built a political class that specializes in capitulation.

Now that someone’s fighting back, they’re all in a panic. Media outlets are warning that prices might go up. Economic “experts” are wringing their hands about potential retaliation. White House leftovers are preaching “stability” and “cooperation.”

They’ve missed the point.

This isn’t about maintaining the fragile feelings of international bureaucrats. This is about righting decades of economic abuse. If prices go up, so be it. That’s the cost of breaking free from a parasitic relationship — and the cost of reclaiming our independence.

Treasury Secretary Bessent made it clear: retaliation will be met head-on. There’s no more turning the other cheek. We’re not going to subsidize your exports while you wall off your markets. We’re not going to let our supply chains — or our sovereignty — dangle at the mercy of foreign powers.

COVID-19 should have been the final wake-up call. Remember when we couldn’t get masks, ventilators, or basic medication? That wasn’t a coincidence. That was a consequence. We spent decades offshoring critical manufacturing, all in the name of “efficiency,” only to find out the hard way that efficiency doesn’t mean much when you can’t get antibiotics.

We were vulnerable — not just economically, but strategically. And nothing’s changed since. If China decides to tighten the faucet again, or if a conflict erupts across the Taiwan Strait, what happens to our microchips? Our electronics? Our energy systems?

We can’t afford to rely on anyone. Not anymore.

That’s why these tariffs matter. Not because they’re protectionist, but because they’re restorative. They level the playing field. They force foreign nations to compete with us honestly — or lose access to the most powerful market on Earth.

It’s long overdue.

The real question isn’t whether these tariffs will work. It’s why they weren’t imposed 20 years ago.

Why did we let foreign countries dump goods below cost into our markets? Why did we sit by as they manipulated currency and distorted global prices? Why were we so willing to gut the American middle class to prop up Beijing’s five-year plans or the EU’s bureaucratic bloating?

The answer is as simple as it is infuriating: Because the people in charge didn’t care about you.

They cared about international praise. About climate conferences and cocktail parties in Davos. About getting glowing headlines from outlets that wouldn’t know a union job from a unicorn startup. They signed trade deals that looked good on paper but gutted entire communities in practice. Then they had the nerve to lecture you about “populism” when you started asking what happened to your job, your town, or your way of life.

Trump’s tariffs are a response to all of it — the betrayal, the hypocrisy, the cowardice.

He’s not just changing trade policy. He’s shattering the old order. He’s telling the world that American workers, American manufacturers, and American values are no longer up for auction.

And that’s exactly why they hate him for it.

They liked it better when we didn’t fight back. When we played the role of polite loser. When we let them exploit our generosity and call it “cooperation.”

Not anymore.

This is what leadership looks like: uncomfortable, controversial, unapologetic. It doesn’t poll-test every decision. It doesn’t ask permission from Brussels or Beijing. It does what’s necessary — even if it makes the elites nervous. (continued below)

Reagan had it when he stared down the Soviets. Trump has it now as he stares down the global economic order that’s been strangling us for decades.

The people who built this country — the welders, the farmers, the truckers, the machinists — they’ve been waiting a long time for someone who talks to them instead of about them. Someone who doesn’t just sympathize with their struggles, but actually does something to fix them.

Liberation Day is more than a tariff announcement. It’s a declaration of intent.

No more playing patsy. No more appeasement. No more selling out the very people who keep this country running.

If you still think tariffs are the problem, you haven’t been paying attention. The problem was never Trump’s solution — it was the decades of surrender that made his solution necessary.

It’s about time someone fought for us.

And it’s about damn time we started fighting back.