Just as Joe Biden used ridiculous assertions to keep his voting base energized (e.g., that “systemic racism” throughout America required constant federal intervention), so does Donald Trump. His pronouncements regarding international trade are astoundingly ignorant, but they no doubt resonate with quite a few Americans who want to believe that we need a leader who will fight against “unfair” foreign trade.

In his latest article for the American Institute for Economic Research, Don Boudreaux obliterates some of this Trumpian nonsense.

Boudreaux begins with the president’s claimed authority to impose tariffs. He writes,

One clear passage of the Constitution has been in the news lately because of President Trump’s many executive orders imposing (and often delaying) tariffs. The Constitution’s passage is this: “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.” This passage from Article I, Section 8 is universally and correctly interpreted to give authority to impose tariffs exclusively to Congress. Neither the executive branch nor the judicial branch have tariff-making authority.

If the drafters of the Constitution had wanted the president to have any power to declare tariffs, they would have said so. They didn’t, no doubt because they feared the rise of a central power similar to that of the monarchy they had thrown off. Moreover, Congress, which has all legislative power, is not allowed to delegate its power. Sadly, that has been allowed by the Supreme Court under the influence of “progressivism.”

Turning to Trump’s notion that “trade deficits” constitute a crisis, Boudreaux writes,

At least the concept of trade deficits in goods and services with the rest of the world is economically meaningful. But its meaning is the opposite of what Mr. Trump and other protectionists suppose. American trade deficits arise whenever America is a net recipient of global capital. If foreigners want to invest in America, they cannot spend all of their dollars buying goods and services from America. So as America, relative to other countries, becomes a more attractive place to invest, foreigners spend a smaller portion of their dollars buying American exports, and invest a larger portion of their dollars in American companies. America runs larger trade deficits, but every cent of American trade deficits (more accurately, ‘current-account deficits’) is a cent of American capital-account surpluses.

Arguing with trade restrictionists is as fruitless as arguing with a college “diversity” administrator who is committed to racial preferences. But debunking nonsense is good mental exercise.