Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 64. Sunrise is 6:35 and sunset is 7:22 for 12 hours 47 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 99.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 2025, Donald Trump announces sweeping worldwide ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs.
It was on this day, only one year ago, that Mr. Trump declared a ‘Liberation Day’ through his imposition of worldwide tariffs:
In a few moments, I will sign a historic Executive order instituting reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world. “Reciprocal”—that means they do to us and we do it to them. Very simple. Can’t get any simpler than that.
This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history. It’s our declaration of economic independence.
For years, hard-working American citizens were forced to sit on the sidelines as other nations got rich and powerful, much of it at our expense. But now it’s our turn to prosper and, in so doing, use trillions and trillions of dollars to reduce our taxes and pay down our national debt. And it will all happen very quickly.
With today’s action, we are finally going to be able to make America great again, greater than ever before. Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you it [sic] happening already.
We will supercharge our domestic industrial base. We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers. And ultimately, more production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers. This will be, indeed, the golden age of America. It’s coming back. And we’re going to come back very strongly.
See The American Presidency Project, Remarks Announcing Additional United States Tariff Actions on Foreign Imports, Donald J. Trump (Mar. 4, 2018).
Scott Lincicome, Alfredo Carrillo Obregon, and Chad Smitson have looked at the economy a year later. Among their findings:
The tariffs raised prices
Notwithstanding the tariff exemptions, the duties undeniably increased prices for American importers and consumers. Economic research shows that the higher costs from tariffs passed through to prices paid by Americans at a rate as high as 96 percent. The administration and tariff defenders often cite that tariffs did not lead to an inflationary spiral, but—as many economists have repeatedly explained—that outcome was never a serious possibility. What was likely—and what did indeed happen—is that tariffs increased the prices of tariffed goods (imported and domestic) last year, and they remain elevated today. Economists from Harvard Business School have examined thousands of items sold at major US retailers and found significant increases in their prices—especially as compared to pre-tariff trends.
[…]Manufacturing jobs did not boom and, in fact, kept declining
Manufacturers reported throughout 2025 that tariff-induced cost pressures and uncertainty hampered economic activity in the sector, and employment data suggest that this also contributed to a slowdown in hiring. While manufacturing employment indeed struggled throughout 2024, the data confirm that—contrary to White House promises—there was no tariff-related hiring boom in 2025.
[…]Foreign investment did not boom
Despite the president’s Liberation Day prediction of a boom in foreign direct investment (FDI), quarterly FDI has fallen since April 2025, with the US registering $72.49 billion in FDI in Q4 (Figure 9). Total FDI in 2025 was $288.4 billion, lower than the annual totals from 2021 through 2024, and far short of the rate needed to reach the president’s lofty goal of $18 trillion in investment. New FDI last year was even lower. Several firms and countries have pledged to increase their investments in the US, but such pledges do not show up in data.
See Scott Lincicome, Alfredo Carrillo Obregon, and Chad Smitson, One Year After “Liberation Day”: Here’s What We Know and What We Don’t, Cato Institute, April 2, 2026.
Only America has sent astronauts to the moon. Decades after Apollo, that’s still true. We are a nation of world-historical achievements. This is reason to be proud, and to achieve even more: