Economics Nobel laureate: Trump uses tariffs to protect dictators
The 50-percent tariff on Brazilian products announced on Wednesday (Jul. 9) by US President Donald Trump has also reverberated in his own country.
US economist Paul Krugman, a columnist for The New York Times and winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Economics, called his president “evil and megalomaniacal.”
“I usually don’t do evening posts. […] But Trump’s latest letter, imposing a 50 percent tariff on Brazil, marks a new departure, and I think merits a special bulletin. After all, it’s both evil and megalomaniacal,” he wrote in a post entitled Trump’s Dictator Protection Program – Using tariffs to fight democracy.
Krugman said there are no economic reasons to justify such a move, describing it as an attempt to get Jair Bolsonaro off the hook for attempting a coup d’état.
“Notice that Trump barely even pretends that there’s an economic justification for this action. This is all about punishing Brazil for putting Jair Bolsonaro on trial,” he wrote Wednesday night (9). In his blog post, he summarizes who Bolsonaro is in his opinion.
“Bolsonaro, as most readers probably know, is Brazil’s previous president, who lost the last election—but tried to stay in power through a coup overturning that election. Of course that sounds familiar,” the text reads.
Krugman refers to the episode of the storming of the Capitol in 2021 by supporters of Donald Trump after his defeat at the polls by Joe Biden. The invaders were convicted in 2023, but Trump granted them a presidential pardon at the start of his second term.
In his message to the Brazilian government, Trump showed concern about freeing his political ally from conviction in the investigation targeting him at the Supreme Court.
“The way Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a highly respected leader around the world during his term, including the United States, is an international shame. This trial should not be taking place. It’s a witch hunt that should be over immediately!” the post says.
In Krugman’s view, Trump is a “wannabe dictator” who is trying to help others like him.
“Now Trump is trying to use tariffs to help another wannabe dictator. If you still thought America was one of the world’s good guys, this should tell you whose side we’re on these days,” he argued.
International trade
The US economist uses 2022 data from the World Trade Organization showing that Brazil has China as its largest trading partner, with 26.8 percent of its exported products. The US comes in with 11.4 percent.
“Does Trump really imagine that he can use tariffs to bully a huge nation, which isn’t even very dependent on the US market, into abandoning democracy?” he asks.
In the Nobel laureate’s opinion, the measures unveiled by Trump are also arguments for opening impeachment proceedings against him.
