On Its 95th Anniversary, Trump’s Ignoring of Smoot-Hawley’s Ugly Lessons Dooms Us to Repeat Them

The well-known adage tells us those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. On this, the anniversary of the implementation of the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs, Donald Trump and his cheerleaders would do well to heed its painful economic lessons. Ninety-five years ago, on June 17, 1930, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act unleashed economic devastation. A recession spiraled into the Great Depression as tariffs on over 20,000 imports sparked a global trade war, gutting world commerce by two-thirds. Trump’s tariff mania shows he’s blind to the past. His plan isn’t “America First”—it’s a chaotic, illogical replay of a catastrophic failure, only worse. As a longtime tax policy specialist and business advisor, I see history screaming: Trump’s tariffs will strangle our economy and betray hardworking Americans.

Smoot-Hawley’s folly was bad enough, but Trump’s tariffs are even worse, and even less logical. Smoot-Hawley at least had a clarity, albeit a misguided one; Trump’s approach is a mess of erratic, ever-shifting policies tied to irrelevant obsessions like trade deficits, which have little to do with tariff efficacy. His irrational, fluctuating rates and targets make planning impossible for businesses, amplifying the chaos. Retaliation from Canada and France crushed jobs in 1930; today’s globalized economy guarantees an even fiercer backlash. Tariffs are a hidden tax, inflating prices for groceries, clothes, car part, etc. Small businesses, battered by inflation, will collapse under this weight. I’ve seen Main Street struggle—Trump’s tariffs will bury it.

The cronyism is shameless, echoing Smoot-Hawley’s uneven handouts. Exempting tech giants while crushing manufacturers and retailers is big-government favoritism, rigging markets for Trump’s allies. The furthest thing from free-market strength—this is Washington’s clumsy fist picking winners and losers.

On this grim anniversary, Smoot-Hawley’s lesson couldn’t be clearer: protectionism destroys. It shatters supply chains, invites retaliation, and throttles the free-market dynamism that built this country. If Trump and his enablers truly cared about growth, they’d reduce tax rates to spur growth, slash wasteful spending, simplify the tax code, and get Washington out of the way. Ninety-five years later, the ghost of Smoot-Hawley is screaming: Don’t tax trade. Unleash it. Don’t repeat the catastrophe. Burn the tariff playbook before it burns us all.