Tariffs causing US pain not 'little disturbance'

US President Donald Trump dedicated the majority of his address to Congress on Tuesday to talk about what he has done since his return to the White House 43 days ago.

Among the many economic topics he touched upon in the one-and-a-half-hour address, tariffs were given the most time after inflation.

"We have been ripped off for decades by nearly every country on Earth and we will not let that happen any longer," Trump said, repeating his election campaign claim to justify the tariff wars he is dragging the world into.

But many of his tariff-related claims do not stand up to the simplest fact-check, which many US media outlets did the moment he ended his address.

For instance, though Trump claimed the US trade deficit with Canada is "hundreds of billions", the trade deficit is actually about $60 billion, without including Canadian energy exports, which would give the United States a trade surplus with Canada.

Trump's claim that "China's average tariff on our products is twice what we charge them" is also false. He defended tariffs as a way to raise revenue for the government; a way to encourage more domestic manufacturing; and a bargaining chip to induce other countries to lower their own trade barriers.

But he did so by presenting a false picture and prevaricating on such key issues as whether his tariffs backfire. "Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again. And it's happening, and it will happen rather quickly," Trump said. "There'll be a little disturbance, but we're okay with that. It won't be much."

Yet US stock markets fell significantly on Tuesday following the start of the tariff wars between the US and its three leading trading partners. The S&P 500 index ended the day at its lowest level since November.

Even many Republicans have deep reservations about the tariffs, and lawmakers from states that could be hard-hit spent Tuesday on the phone with Trump's aides voicing their concerns. They had been hoping to hear from Trump a more fulsome explanation of his tariff plan, and an explanation of how average Americans might benefit, according to US media reports.

The administration is aware of the harms its tariffs are doing to the US. After Canada, Mexico and China made public their respective retaliatory tariffs and measures over the past two days, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested that the Trump administration is exploring possible relief from the tariffs and could make an announcement soon in a bid to cushion the boomerang effects of the US' tariff attacks.

The Yale Budget Lab estimates that the tariffs could cost the average household up to $2,000 annually. Most economists predict that prices and, therefore, inflation will go up, with consumers seeing higher prices for food, gasoline, clothes, shoes, toys and other household items.

In other words, it is the working families and the US economy at large that will bear the brunt of the administration's tariffs, though ironically Trump said in the address one of his "very highest priorities" was to rescue the economy and offer relief to working families.

But as predicted, Trump was vague in the specifics in the Congress address, and he repeated his encouragement to farmers to "have a lot of fun" selling their products inside the US, a sentiment he voiced on social media this week, even as he acknowledged the tariffs could cause economic pain.

Seeking a quick-fix to address long-term institutional and structural issues, leaving the unspecified and unpredictable impacts to the future, is the hallmark wisdom of Trump's art of policymaking. It is the parties he claims he will protect that will prove to be the victims in the US' tariff wars against the world.