The first few months of President Donald Trump 2.0 have drawn comparisons to the deregulation era of Ronald Reagan, the industrial policy of Alexander Hamilton, the roaring ebullience of the 1920s, the fervid patriotism of the 1950s, and the harsh cultural divisions of the 1960s.
But when it comes to one of Trump’s signature policy initiatives, tariffs on foreign goods entering America, the precedent in history is clear: The increases in tariffs imposed or suggested by Trump would bring U.S. import taxes to a level last seen some 80 years ago, in the mid-1940s. Those were the last years of a protectionist era in U.S. trade policy, which started in the 1920s and endured through the Great Depression and World War II.
