The stock market recently took its biggest tumble since COVID, and a lot of analysts are pointing the finger at President Trump’s tariff program. Now, tariffs do come with a cost, but to understand whether this policy makes sense, we need to take a step back and look at what tariffs actually are, the history behind them, and what they’re meant to do — the good and the bad.

So, what is a tariff?

A tariff is a tax or duty placed on imported goods. It’s collected at the border, usually from the companies bringing the product into the U.S. Those companies almost always pass that cost onto consumers, which makes foreign products more expensive here. But what’s often left out is why a country might want to do this.

This debate didn’t start with Trump. Tariffs — especially the ones other countries slapped on American products — are a big reason why the real U.S. economy has been getting hollowed out for decades. Think back to the ‘70s and ‘80s when Japanese cars hit the American market hard. They were small, fuel-efficient, and they arrived right when we got hit with the oil embargo. Americans wanted better mileage, and Japan delivered.

But while Japan was gaining ground here, U.S. automakers couldn’t return the favor. American vehicles like trucks and Cadillacs were priced out of the Japanese market. It wasn’t just tariffs — it was also quotas and regulations that kept our stuff out. At one point, buying an American car in Japan could cost three times what it did here. That’s not a free market — that’s economic warfare with a smile.

The end result? Our auto industry took a beating. Solid jobs vanished. Whole towns got gutted. 

Even retirees got rocked when pensions went up in smoke. By the time the auto giants collapsed in 2008, Washington had to step in with a bailout. But maybe it never had to get that far.

What if past administrations had stood up for American workers?

What if they’d demanded a fair deal from Japan — or China, or anybody else benefitting from our open market while locking us out of theirs?

China’s been running a trade imbalance with us that’s routinely 9-to-1. They flood our shelves with cheap goods and give American companies little or no access to their market in return. For too long, foreign leaders got used to U.S. presidents backing down. Trump’s tariff program flipped that script.

Tariffs aren’t just taxes — they’re leverage. They send a message: if you want access to the U.S. consumer, you’d better come to the table and make it fair. Hungary — a European Union country — even called out EU leaders for refusing to negotiate with Trump, blaming what they called “Trump-phobia” for the situation now unfolding.

But this isn’t just about dollars and cents.

Protecting American industry is also about self-reliance and national security. In World War II, our factories turned the tide. We had the infrastructure to produce planes, tanks, and ammo because we actually made things here. These days, you gotta ask — if a real crisis hit, could TikTok influencers defend a country? Do we wanna be a nation that exports Instagram reels while importing everything we need to survive?

Tariffs aren’t a magic bullet — they’re like going to the gym or eating your broccoli. Might not feel great in the short term, but it’s the kind of tough medicine that helps you stay strong down the line. Over time, some of the countries who fought us on tariffs are starting to get it. Mexico already made major trade concessions.

And the bigger picture? Trump’s trying to rebuild an industrial economy that gives folks real jobs with good pay. That kind of economy makes a nation strong — not just economically, but culturally, spiritually, and defensively.