James Bennet, our Lexington columnist, considers Donald Trump’s threats in historical context

Donald Trump may be bluffing about tariffs, but as you might expect The Economist is concerned about the possibility he will eventually impose them. As we put it in our article, “It is hardly necessary to say that with legislation of this kind we have no sympathy whatever. In our view it is as mistaken as it is certain to prove mischievous.”

Oh—whoops—my mistake: that’s not from our tariffs piece from this week. It’s from the one we published in 1890 opposing a tariff scheme proposed by William McKinley, a congressman from Ohio who would subsequently be elected governor and then president. During his inaugural address on Monday Mr Trump invoked McKinley as a role model. (By the way, McKinley eventually changed his mind on tariffs and also came to lament America’s costly acquisition, on his watch, of the Philippines.)

Though we opposed McKinley’s tariffs, we went on in that article to criticise “the protectionist nations of Europe” for complaining. “The American people have a right to regulate their fiscal affairs in whatever manner they think best, and for us to resent as an insult the exercise of that freedom because it clashes with our interests is foolish and absurd,” we wrote. “Such a display of temper will only aggravate the evil. It will play into the hands of the protectionists, who will contend that the success of their policy may be measured by the irritation it causes here.” 

I admire the fair mind and long view The Economist brought to that matter, and I hope that, like me, you’ll recognise the same qualities in our cover leader this week about the start Mr Trump has made on his second term. Forgive me for sounding like a company man, but in this era of institutional drift and disorientation I feel lucky to work at a place with such proven ballast and sense of direction.

Of course, historic precedents only get you so far: we can’t expect to rerun the experience of the McKinley years. America in the 21st century is not the America of the end of the 19th, as our (new) leader says. With his sweeping amnesty for the January 6th convicts, his new cryptocurrency, his defiance of the bipartisan law to the force TikTok’s divestiture and his vision to extend America’s dominion not just into Central America but across the solar system, Mr Trump is asserting new latitude and new powers for the imperial presidency that will test the republic’s checks and balances.