MORNING GLORY: Trump, tariffs, the CR and the tax cuts

At two points in his autobiography, "My Early Life," Winston Churchill pauses to reflect on political parties:

"It is not the slightest use defending government or parties unless you defend the very worst thing about which they are attacked."

Much later in his account of his first 25 years, after he had been elected to Parliament and a group of like-minded young MPs got opposite of a senior figure on his Party’s Front Bench, Joe Chamberlain, they invited Chamberlain to dine. He accepted. 

TRUMP TEASES TARIFFS AGAINST MEXICO, CANADA MAY GO HIGHER IN THE FUTURE

"I am dining in very bad company," Chamberlain remarked as he entered. When the young MPs challenged him on what they thought to be a rotten policy, Chamberlain responded, "What is the use of supporting your own government only when it is right? It is just when it is in this sort of pickle that you ought to have come to our aid."

After a fine dinner, as Chamberlain took his leave, he paused at the door, "You young gentlemen have entertained me royally, and in return I will give you a priceless secret. Tariffs! There are the politics of the future, and of the near future. Study them closely and make yourself a masters of them and you will not regret your hospitality to me."

Churchill would bolt the Conservatives for the Liberals over protectionism in 1904. He would return to the Tories in 1924. "Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat," he would declare.

Churchill "ratted" over his belief in free trade. He re-ratted because of national security. Let’s skip the drama over tariffs and stay focused on defending the country and the Constitution. Give Trump the time (and the votes in Congress when he needs them) to enact what he ran on. Give the Party and its president a chance. Most Republicans from the Reagan-era have been "Free Traders," just as most of the Lincoln-to-McKinley era Republicans were supporters of tariffs. Many have now settled on the "tariffs-as-part-of-national-security-good, tariffs as revenue producers bad."

The president of Hillsdale College, Dr. Larry Arnn, likes to say "The Natural Law does not speak to me on tariffs," and in that quip is great wisdom. I leave the field to others, save for full-throated backing of tariffs on the critical goods necessary to the country’s security and health which should be made here in whole or large part, but the supply chains for which are in the People’s Republic of China in shop or critical part. To depend upon the only other superpower for our national security is nuts. President Trump wants to lay on 20% of such goods coming to the U.S. from China? Fine by me, and yes, I know some Americans will pay a price such ad many farmers who sell their products to the vast China market. 

I don’t get tariffs on Canada. I do on Mexico. Fentanyl is flowing into the U.S. because of the cartels. The drugs kills tens of thousands of Americans every year. Mexico doesn’t want us striking at cartel operations? Fine. Crush them yourselves, but crush them. 

Which brings us round-a-bout to the big "Continuing Resolution" Speaker Johnson unveiled and President Trump endorsed this past weekend. 

Bravo. I don’t know what is in the 99-page bill save for the beginning of a defense build-up, but it will allow the government to stay open while Trump and the GOP figure out the budget and reconciliation package(s) —there can be one or two. I am in favor of whatever the GOP passes just as I will support the president’s approaches on trade and peace negotiations at least for year one. 

Because I’m a party man. Always have been. Always will be. Parties are the only way to advance political agendas and, in this era, the Republican Party is the only way to protect the Constitution as the Democrats want to pack the Supreme Court and crush the rule of law in the process of doing so. So, yes, join the GOP if you like a free and prospering USA. Don’t like tariffs, or CRs, or pressure on Ukraine? That’s not the point. Trump won, leads the GOP and he is doing exactly what he promised to do. 

Hugh Hewitt is host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show," heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990.  Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.