You Can’t MAGA Without the Rest of the World

What Trump’s tariff plan misunderstands about jobs, global trade, and the future.

Nostalgia isn’t just selective — it’s expensive. Like that vintage Mustang you’ve been eyeing, which costs more than your mortgage but still smells like your uncle’s cigarettes.

Trump’s proposed tariff regime isn’t just economic policy — it’s a cultural Hail Mary thrown blindly into triple coverage. He’s betting that Americans are desperate to climb into an economic DeLorean and punch in 1957 on the dashboard.

But most of us have already left that drive-in movie, popcorn dropped, tires squealing.

The same MAGA voters who break out in hives at the mere mention of a Soviet-style “5-year plan” are now cheering for government market manipulation that would make Khrushchev slow-clap.

The free market amnesia could power Pittsburgh through the next decade — and maybe Cleveland, too.

Let’s break this down.

Following the money (it’s not going where you think)

The of 1930 imposed average duties of 45% on imports. It didn’t revive American manufacturing — it contributed to a 65% decline in global trade and…