President Donald Trump has prioritized American workers and families over billionaires and bankers, and while markets are heaving and Democrats are wailing, the American working class may finally see some relief. Instead of exporting jobs and importing cheap goods, the US may start importing jobs and exporting goods made by American labor.
Trump has ignited one of the most urgent economic battles of the twenty-first century with his baseline 10% and reciprocal tariff policy. For decades, the United States has been at the mercy of every other country it trades with, with only corporations and communist governments benefiting, such as China with its slave labor, and elitist Wall Street sycophants. The situation is dire, and America urgently needs to sever these toxic relationships and undergo a complete reformation of its role as a trade superpower.
"The top 10% of Americans own 88% of equities," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained in an interview with Tucker Carlson. "The next 40% owns 12% of the stock market. The bottom 50 has debt. They have credit card bills, they rent their homes, they have auto loans, and we've got to give them some relief." That's the goal of the Trump administration.
It was during Covid that supply chains were shut down, millions of people were laid off, small businesses were left to wither and die, retirement funds tanked, and billionaires made billions more. Main Street was sacrificed during the pandemic so Wall Street could thrive and many Americans who lost their jobs ended up falling into the gig economy and the service sector. The restrictions placed on society and the economy resulted in a massive wealth transfer from the working and middle classes to the wealthy, and with a series of new economic maneuvers, Trump is turning that around.
Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum addressed the changing economy and proposed a plan they called The Great Reset, designed to remake the global economy. This plan was to "rebuild" the global economy in a "sustainable" way, something that was echoed by former President Joe Biden with his plans to "build back better." The idea was to bypass working people and the middle class and remake the economy from the top down to uphold the values of global elites no matter what the cost to average people just trying to make a living and support their families. Biden, Schwab, and those who would remake the economy didn't care what happened to those on Main Street.
During the lockdowns, storefronts and businesses across the US shut down, leaving gaping wastelands where thriving downtowns used to be. This was true in cities big and small, and all the while, the elite power brokers told Americans that it was better for them to see their homes lose value, national debt skyrocket, and good jobs fall further out of reach. As they did that, they opened the nation's borders to import a second-class who would exist in a legal gray area and take jobs for less pay than Americans. All of this, they said, was to the good. It wasn't, and Trump is reversing that piece by piece.
Those who have followed President Trump’s messaging since 2015 know this has been his goal from the start. Even in his first term, when he implemented specific tariffs targeted at China and the steel and aluminum industries, the tariffs proved effective. He has consistently advocated for them to become a permanent policy that would only benefit the United States. Fair share and America First protectionist positions have long been central to Trump’s vision of world trade, and the "free trade" policies that the United States was propping up under Biden and his WEF cronies were insufficient.
Trade cannot be free without being fair, so the perception that America should willingly participate in laissez-faire economics while being run over by the rest of the world is precisely why President Trump has initiated this change in our role. Protectionism gets a bad rap from conservatives who have been told that Reaganomics is the only way to think about economics.
Still, that approach has led to nothing besides the elites of the world trampling over the American workers. Corporations, Wall Street, and countries like communist China can be protected through the abuse of "free trade," or the American people and their families’ futures can be defended against the rest of the world through tariffs.
Whichever option is chosen protects a particular class of people, and only one option benefits the grassroots voters who advocated for Trump to have the chance to reform the entirety of the American economic system. Working Americans need a break, and Trump is going to provide it.
