President Donald Trump has unilaterally imposed hundreds of billions of dollars in import taxes on American businesses and consumers. The official reasons he’s given for this have mostly clustered around implausible arguments that trade deficits are a national emergency (as opposed to a sign Americans are so much richer than the rest of the world we can buy more than others can buy from us).

Emblematic of how thoughtfully his tariffs have been imposed is the case of Switzerland. The Trump administration decided it was a problem that Americans buy more from the Swiss than the Swiss buy from Americans and therefore decided Americans must pay a 39% tariff on imported goods from Switzerland.

But then a Swiss delegation paid Trump a visit earlier this month and lavished him with gifts, incl

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