In the Biblical Book of Daniel, the mysterious writing on the wall conveys an ominous message to Babylon’s King Belshazzar:
“God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting; your kingdom is divided and given to [others].”
The public’s message to Mr. Trump in last month’s election was just about as blunt — especially with respect to the trade wars he made his signature economic policy. Two years into the first U.S. general tariff increase since Herbert Hoover’s in 1930, American family budgets are stressed and workers’ real wages are down, farm and factory competitiveness have eroded, and America’s worldwide power and reputation are diminished. The “reindustrialization” and “new golden age” promised as compensation are nowhere in sight. Having weighed Mr. Trump’s policies in the balance and found them wanting, voters have given much of his power to others.
The new Congress taking office in January can respond to the voters’ central hope — a more affordable life for families, lower costs for farmers and manufacturers — by ending his tariff experiment and laying the foundation for something better under the next president.
Shutting down the tariff program would be relatively easy, at least in principle. Since Mr. Trump and his team imposed it through a mix of anti-Constitutional decrees at home and economic coercion abroad, rather than legitimate and durable law, their tariff wall is legally flimsy and their arrangements with foreign governments ephemeral. The incoming Congress, and the next president if necessary, can scrap it without regret. In so doing, they can remove some inflationary pressure on the U.S. economy and begin rebuilding relationships with America’s neighbors and allies.
The more difficult challenge is to find the right replacement. That is a longer-term project, entailing intellectual debate and consensus-building at home, skeptical reassessment of the past decade’s experiments in leftish “post-neoliberalism” and far-right “national conservatism,” and consultation with America’s friends abroad. But the new Congress can achieve a lot on its own, and lay a foundation for a better program emerging from the 2028 presidential campaign. It should rest on three pillars:
