Stanford University Hoover Institution fellow Victor Davis Hanson recommends everyone “take a deep breath” when it comes to all the talk about tariffs.
Appearing this week as a guest on Sirius XM’s “The Megyn Kelly Show,” the author and podcast host made several important points for Americans to consider as many in the media and Wall Street pundits predict calamity for the economy due to President Donald Trump’s trade policies.
“There is a lot of misinformation,” Hanson said, first pointing out that many who are critical of Trump are only criticizing him because he is “Trump.”
“Donald Trump did everything Wall Street wanted his first term. He repealed Dodd Frank, he deregulated, he cut taxes, he encouraged accelerated depreciation, and the market went up,” Hanson observed.
“Trump used to boast he had raised the stock market 60% during his first term,” he recalled. “And people said, ‘Ah, the stock market, that’s not a good barometer; workers’ wages and unemployment.’ But Donald Trump already had provided this week – you’d think the stock market would take note – 100,000 more jobs than the government said would be produced.”
Now, Hanson argued, there is little appreciation from Trump’s opponents for the dramatic positive changes he has already brought about.
“When you look at the whole … totality of the Trump 80 Days, it’s, well, we went from 10,000 a day to zero on the border. Nobody said that was possible,” Hanson said. “We’ve already identified $150 billion that everybody on both sides admits is probably waste and fraud. Already, for the first time in a decade, you can navigate through the Red Sea. The Houthis are pretty much in withdrawal. Iran is completely emasculated, and somebody is talking about ending the Ukraine war, which, instead of just ‘we’ll give them whatever it takes to the end.’ So, there’s been dramatic changes … there’s no appreciation.”
Tuesday night, Trump addressed his decision to impose 104% tariffs on China – a move that set off a wave of requests for negotiation from other nations.
In a press release Wednesday morning, the White House Office of Communications highlighted that “Trump made clear whose side he is on — everyday Americans, not the globalist politicians who have spent decades selling out American workers to foreign countries.”
“I’m proud to be the president for the workers, not the outsourcers; the president who stands up for Main Street, not Wall Street; who protects the middle class, not the political class; and who defends America, not trade cheaters all over the globe,” the president said, adding that America’s opponents “are not afraid that our America First policies will fail, they’re terrified that our strategy will succeed and we’re going to get bigger and stronger and better … and that is what’s happening … We’re going to prove that all of their treasonous years of betrayal will not be forgotten.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent echoed the same sentiment Tuesday.
Regarding his trade agenda, Trump reminded Americans that “the shrill voices that you’re hearing this week about tariffs are the same scoundrels and frauds who never thought twice about when the United States lost 90,000 factories and plants … since NAFTA.”
While Hanson acknowledged the anxiety caused by the stock market’s current volatility, he criticized those who are rejecting the big picture.
“So, I guess what I’m saying is … take a deep breath, and then contextualize this with the Russian collusion hoax that we all said was a fake, … the COVID lockdown debacle, the Hunter laptop disinformation fable, the lie that Joe Biden was fit as a fiddle, the idea that Kamala Harris had closed the distance and she was three points ahead in Iowa and going to win that,” Hanson said. “And these all were these cycle dramas that turned out to be not what they were.”
Second, Hanson said the notion that the tariffs will cause a recession or depression is false.
“[T]hey keep talking about tariffs, tariffs, tariffs, tariffs, recession, depression,” he exclaimed. “I can’t think of a tariff that caused a major recession or depression. It didn’t cause it [in] 2008 – that was Wall Street. That was this reckless Wall Street hysteria that we’re seeing now, only channeled into subprime mortgage securitization in the market when there wasn’t capital there that they said there was.”
Anti-Trump corporate media and their pundits, nevertheless, are pounding the airwaves and internet with claims that Trump’s trade policies are pushing America toward a depression. Many cite the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 as having caused the Great Depression of 1929 – despite the fact the depression started prior to the Act being implemented.
“The Smoot-Hawley Act did not cause a Great Depression,” Hanson countered. “We had a surplus at the time. It was unnecessary, yes. It was punitive, yes. But it was two years after when it fully was implemented … What? Who caused the Great Depression? Buying on the margin and reckless Wall Street investors. So, it’s kind of ironic that Wall Street has a tendency to go bananas, speculate, and hurt the rest of us, and now they’re trying to cite Smoot-Hawley – that had nothing to do with the depression, and they should look to themselves.”
Third, Hanson argued Democrats have shifted so far to the Left that their ideas to save the country from what they see as disaster can hardly be relevant to Americans who voted in a landslide for Trump.
Hanson swatted down any notion that “there’s going to be help from the Democrats on deregulation, tax reduction, investment, protecting American companies, dealing with the debt, dealing with the deficit.”
“I don’t think there is. Nothing’s coming out of the Left,” he asserted. “Everything that’s coming out of the Left is antithetical to what the Wall Street Journal, for example, believes. I just would like to hear what their alternative scenario is.”
Hanson did have one suggestion for the Trump administration – in the realm of “communication.”
“I would only suggest to them that he have a tragic tone,” he advised, pointing to the president’s references to the tariffs as “beautiful.”
“He should say, you know, ‘I didn’t want to do this, but we’ve had 50 years of this, and nobody brought anybody’s attention to it. The offshoring, the outsourcing that has destroyed the industrial base of this country,’” Hanson recommended, adding that Trump should emphasize his plan is “‘for the good of the country, even though I’m going to be hated for doing it.’”
For this moment, Hanson said, he’d like to hear Trump focus more on “reciprocity.”
“The American people will back him the whole way if he just says ‘I would like zero tariffs with partners, and barring that, I want our tariffs to be what their tariffs are.’”
The president pushed back Monday on criticism of the tariffs, urging Americans to be patient and strong.
“Don’t be a PANICAN,” he posted to Truth Social and X.
“The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO,” Trump said. “Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!”