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Yes, Trump’s tariffs are a huge tax hike on Americans already struggling with the cost of living and they are tanking the stock market (the Dow is down nearly 1,300 points as I write this). But there’s a method behind the apparent madness and it’s not the “good for the economy” justification Trump and his cronies pretend.
Although the move seems like another deranged idea from the most ignorant and incompetent person ever likely to inhabit the White House, there’s a far more frightening method to the seeming madness.
Sen. Chris Murphy laid it out in a Blue Sky thread. “Those trying to understand the tariffs as economic policy are dangerously naïve,” he wrote. “They aren’t designed as economic policy” but a “new, super dangerous political tool.”
Murphy went on to note that kings and despots used taxes, which is what tariffs are, to control populations. “Our own revolution was spurred by the King’s use of heavy taxation of the colonies to punish our push for self governance,” he noted. “The King’s message was simple: stop protesting and I’ll stop taxing.” That is why our founding fathers gave Congress, not the president, the power of the purse.
Trump is already using government funds to bully universities, law firms and state and local governments, Murphy added. The tariffs are the next step in the fascist bullying.
Trump has deliberately created economic suffering in order to force every business to pledge loyalty to him in exchange for sanctions relief.
“The tariffs are DESIGNED to create economic hardship. Why? So that Trump has a straight face rationale for releasing them, business by business or industry by industry. As he adjusts or grants relief, it’s a win-win: the economy improves and dissent disappears,” Murphy continued. “It’s the playbook for democratically elected leaders who want to stay in power forever,” Murphy said.
Fortunately, not all is lost… yet. “But as long as we see this clearly, we can stop him. Public mobilization is working. Today, a few Republicans joined Democrats to vote against one set of tariffs. The people still have the power,” Murphy wrote Wednesday night, at the end of his thread.
So, if you haven’t made plans yet to take part in the Hands Off! national protest on Saturday, there couldn’t be a better time to do so than now.
Those trying to understand the tariffs as economic policy are dangerously naive.
No, the tariffs are a tool to collapse our democracy. A means to compel loyalty from every business that will need to petition Trump for relief.
1/ A 🧵 to explain his plan and how we fight back.
— Chris Murphy (@chrismurphyct.bsky.social) 2025-04-03T03:29:38.437Z
2/ This week you will read many confused economists and political pundits who won’t understand how the tariffs make economic sense.
That’s because they don’t. They aren’t designed as economic policy. The tariffs are simply a new, super dangerous political tool.
— Chris Murphy (@chrismurphyct.bsky.social) 2025-04-03T03:29:38.438Z
3/ You see, our founders created a President with limited and checked powers. They specifically put the power of spending and taxation in the hands of the legislature.
Why? Because they watched how kings and despots used spending and taxes to control their subjects.
— Chris Murphy (@chrismurphyct.bsky.social) 2025-04-03T03:29:38.439Z
4/ British kings used taxation to reward loyalty and punish dissent.
Our own revolution was spurred by the King’s use of heavy taxation of the colonies to punish our push for self governance.
The King’s message was simple: stop protesting and I’ll stop taxing.
— Chris Murphy (@chrismurphyct.bsky.social) 2025-04-03T03:29:38.440Z
6/ Healthy democracies rely on an independent legal profession to maintain the rule of law, independent universities to guard objective truth and provide forums for dissent to authority, and independent state/local government to counterbalance a powerful federal government.
— Chris Murphy (@chrismurphyct.bsky.social) 2025-04-03T03:29:38.442Z
7/ But the private sector also plays a rule to protect democracy. Independent industry has power.
The tariffs are Trump’s tool to erode that independence. Now, one by one, every industry or company will need to pledge loyalty to Trump in order to get sanctions relief.
— Chris Murphy (@chrismurphyct.bsky.social) 2025-04-03T03:29:38.443Z
9/ The tariffs are DESIGNED to create economic hardship. Why? So that Trump has a straight face rationale for releasing them, business by business or industry by industry.
As he adjusts or grants relief, it’s a win-win: the economy improves and dissent disappears.
— Chris Murphy (@chrismurphyct.bsky.social) 2025-04-03T03:29:38.445Z
10/ And once Trump has the lawyers, colleges and industry under his thumb, it becomes very hard for the opposition to have any viable space to maneuver.
Trump didn’t invent this strategy. It’s the playbook for democratically elected leaders who want to stay in power forever.
— Chris Murphy (@chrismurphyct.bsky.social) 2025-04-03T03:29:38.446Z
11/ The tariffs aren’t economic policy. They are political weapons.
But as long as we see this clearly, we can stop him. Public mobilization is working. Today, a few Republicans joined Democrats to vote against one set of tariffs.
The people still have the power.
— Chris Murphy (@chrismurphyct.bsky.social) 2025-04-03T03:29:38.447Z
