New presidential administrations deserve some forbearance, but by swinging a wrecking ball through the world economy and global trade with a misguided, over-the-top tariff blitz, President Donald Trump has only weeks to do what he often does: make some deals, declare victory and reverse course. “Get Trump on the phone talking and working out his deals,” urges journalist Derek Thompson. “At any time Trump could come out and declare victory,” suggested Stephen Stanley, Santander U.S. bank chief economist. Consensus is that time is short.

Trump seems to have heeded those warnings with the partial tariff delay announced April 9th.

Time is especially short for many in the construction industry, who have already taken a huge hit from Trump administration policies on infrastructure, business and the environment, as well as for Americans facing new hardships, who are supposed to be beneficiearies of the president’s approach to international trade.

The ribbon-cutting-type media rollout for the tariff program on April 2nd, labeled “Liberation Day” by the administration, came complete with a Trump-held chart describing the “reciprocal tariffs,” expressed as percentages to be imposed on goods from various nations that sell goods to the U.S. The United Auto Workers union cheered, hoping for more factory capacity returning to the U.S.

Owners of shrimp fishing businesses made TV appearances, noting how imports have taken over the market. 

Supporters talked of billions in revenue that tariffs are supposed to bring, or as Trump has said, “will make America rich.” An international banking optimist speculated that the tariff blitz combined with  his plans for deregulation and tax cuts could  succeed. “You can’t rule out that these policies might work,” said Manpreet Gill, chief investment officer of Africa, Middle East and Europe for Standard Chartered Bank.

A Darker View

The prevailing view was far darker.

The so-called reciprocal tariffs in reality, with a few exceptions, are based on the size of the U.S. trade imbalance with all other countries, and are not actual reciprocal tariffs equal to the levies imposed on goods imported from the U.S. Instead, the “tariff” program, at least the way it stood yesterday, was an ill-considered doomsday machine threatening the U.S. trading partners, causing harm to those in the U.S who are meant to benefit.

The penalties may help achieve some fairer trade with individual countries but they will not create the American industrial renaissance wistfully envisioned by the president and his loyalists. European Commission Chair Ursula von er Leyan pronounced the tariff announcement “a major blow to the world economy.”

We’ll reiterate that it’s also a major blow to U.S. taxpayers and construction industry businesses, threatening a sector slump as risk and uncertainty intensify.

With Trump’s window for limiting the wreckage very narrow, the Republican Party must make sure he sees what’s at stake. Maybe the entire tariff barrage was only a short-term tactic in his plan for country-by-country trade “dealmaking,” but too much U.S. damage has already been done.

A major conflict with China, the U.S.’s biggest trading partner, remains. And the rapid-fire switches from the White House still threaten to ruin what had been shaping up as a good year for business.