When news broke that the White House had appealed the U.S. Court of International Trade's ruling that most of President Donald Trump's tariffs are illegal, I thought of the old familiar story of the man who lived by the river. Upon hearing a weather report that the river will flood, he resolves to stay. "God will save me," he says. After being swept into the river, he's carried past a branch he doesn't reach for. "God will save me," he says. He doesn't take the hand of a fisherman in his boat because again: "God will save me." When the drowned man gets to heaven, he asks why God let him drown, and God replies, "I sent you a weather report, a branch and a boat. What are you doing here?" Over the four months that Trump has blundered ahead with sweeping tariffs, he's been offered chance after chance to change course— and rejected them all. But unlike the man in the story, Trump isn't by himself in the river. We all are. This is a preview of James Downie's latest column. Read the full column here. |
