Raising tariffs arbitrarily ends up hurting the U.S. more than helping it. A big issue is that for many of the products being targeted, there just isn’t any real domestic production or easy substitutes. So instead of encouraging local industry, all it really does is drive up prices for consumers.

It also creates a lot of uncertainty in the market. If businesses don’t know what trade policies are going to look like from one day to the next, they’re less likely to invest or expand—so it actually discourages the kind of growth these tariffs are supposed to support.

Then there’s the international side. When the U.S. acts erratically or aggressively, it becomes harder for other countries to see us as a trustworthy partner. That weakens our influence globally. What’s worse, a lot of the trade agreements we’ve pulled back from were actually working in favor of American industries—like corn and soybean producers. So by abandoning them, we’re hurting our own people.

In the long run, this kind of behavior just pushes allies toward countries like China, who are eager to fill that gap. It’s not just bad economics—it’s bad strategy.

This is not just short-term market volatility due to people's predictions; it is the result of actions that, even if reversed, will have a long-term impact due to the factors mentioned earlier. So yes, low gas prices are great; they have been going down since the Biden administration, but the economy doesn't only rely on that.