Share

BBC and The Washington Post Quote Prof. Jennifer Miller on Trump's Understanding of Tariffs

This year, a BBC News article by Nada Tawfik and a video by JM Rieger at The Washington Post prominately quoted Associate Professor of History Jennifer Miller discussing Trump's decades long fixation with tariffs and their relationship with Japan. Prof. Miller provided illuminating historical context on Trump's understanding of tariffs, and an international analysis of trade dynamics in the current Presidency.

Trump Trade War: How Japan sparked Trump's 40-year love affair with tariffs. Getty Images. BBC. 02.07.2025

Nada Tawfik. "How Japan sparked Trump's 40-year love affair with tariffs." BBC.com. February 7, 2025.
Nada Tawfik. "How Japan sparked Trump's 40-year love affair with tariffs." BBC.com. Getty Images. February 7, 2025.

----

Excerpt:

In the late 1980s, Japan provided competition for US manufacturing, particularly in consumer electronics and cars. As US factories were shuttering and new Japanese brands entered the market, pundits were talking about Japan surpassing the US as the world's leading economy.

"Trump is sort of symbolic of a lot of people who were kind of questioning American leadership in the American-led international order, and whether it actually served the United States," Professor Miller stated, citing a 80s-era advertisement Trump launched in support of foreign tariffs, which read: "There's nothing wrong with America's Foreign Defense Policy that a little backbone can't cure."

The ad served as a potent introduction to Trump's foreign policy vision, according to Prof Miller. One built on the zero-sum belief that allies are freeloaders and that the liberal internationalist approach which had dominated since World War II was weak and foolish in a competitive world. The solution, he argued, was a more aggressive, protectionist trade policy.

Trump is drawn to shows of power and pressure, explained Prof. Miller: "I think that's one reason he likes tariffs so much, is they fit not only with his transactional ideology but his sense of himself, which is very deeply rooted as this successful dealmaker. And the fact that tariffs can be threatened; they can be dangled over another country."

 

----

Nada Tawfik. "How Japan sparked Trump's 40-year love affair with tariffs." BBC.com. February 7, 2025.Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gp5pw654lo.

----

JM Rieger. "How Trump's 30-year fixation on tariffs began with Japan." Washingtonpost.com. April 1, 2025.Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/how-trumps-30-year-fixation-on-tariffs-began-with-japan/2025/04/01/405961e9-d836-4d40-bcaa-ede5b7658214_video.html

----