Commentary

With the stock market reporting a major hit today, it’s no wonder more Americans are queasy over President Trump’s Liberation Day move with tariffs.  After all, Gallop tells us that 162 million Americans, or 62 percent of U.S. adults, now own stock.

However, the bottom half own just one percent of all stocks and mutual fund shares, with most of them indirectly holding stocks through a mutual fund, an index fund, or a retirement account, like a 401(k).

On the other hand, the top 10 percent of wealthiest Americans hold a record 93 percent of U.S. equities, according to Federal Reserve data.

The usual lineup of anti-Trumpers were naturally critical of the president’s actions with tariffs.

Not the least of which was the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, with earlier negative thoughts on tariffs, referred to Liberation Day “as another large step toward a new old era of trade protectionism,” calling it “an attempt to remake the U. S. economy and the world trade system.”

When asked how things were going while leaving the White House Thursday morning, Trump related the result to a patient after an operation saying, “I think it’s going very well.”  Further, he remarked that the “markets, stocks and the country are going to boom,” while adding that the rest of the world “wants to see if there’s a way that can make a deal,” noting that “they’ve taken advantage of us for many, many years.”

As an admirer of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who I have quoted often, I was struck by the opinion piece written by Nile Gardiner, a former Thatcher aide, who is the director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation.

Obviously, someone well-versed in the ways of Europe, the headline on his piece, “Trump is the First Eurosceptic U.S. President and That’s a Good Thing,”  he noted the contrast with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris – both globalists – “could not be greater.”

Gardiner also mentioned Barack Obama, “a diehard Eurofederalist,” who ludicrously proclaimed in a speech before the European Parliament, that Brussels could claim to be the “capital of the free world.”

“Trump is America’s first Eurosceptic president and the only American president to actively stand up to the European Project.  He should be applauded for doing so.

“Trump,” he writes, “is treating the European Union as a competitor and even an adversary, as a force that is actively undermining the U.S. economy and the American people.

“The U.S. president wants to see a level playing field with Europe on the trade front and more jobs for American workers.  His America First approach is strongly backed by blue collar working-class voters who propelled him back to power in November.”

Trump’s Words

“April 2, 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to make America wealthy again

Patience Urged

“My advice to the country right now is do not retaliate.  Sit back, take it in, let’s see how it goes.  Because if you retaliate, there will be escalation.  If you don’t retaliate, this is the high-water mark.” – Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary

While I believe Bessent’s message was meant for European countries, patience by Americans will be required, too.  There’s already talk of prices remaining high though Trump has been in office less than three months.  In Transom, Ben Domenech notes his concern that Trump’s risky gamble for the Republican Paty, in that with elections beginning in earnest in August, it requires this gamble be a short-term problem.”

Getting the “big, beautiful bill” passed, with the tax cuts made permanent, is the next step in turning America around.  Patience my friends.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.