The Amateur Hour Presidency: Tariffs, Trade, and the High Cost of Chaos

Newsweek

12-05-2025

America's trade policy is being run like a weekend garage sale. Prices change by the hour, rules are made up on the fly—but unlike a garage sale, no one seems to know who's in charge.
Monday's early morning news—an agreement between the United States and China to suspend their tariff war for 90 days—might look like progress at first glance. But don't let the diplomatic photo-ops fool you. This is not economic statecraft. This is improvisation masquerading as leadership. And it's costing American manufacturers, consumers, and importers dearly.
Let's take a closer look at what was announced this morning. The U.S. and China have agreed to a temporary ceasefire in their self-inflicted tariff war. For the next 90 days, both countries will ease the punishing tariffs they slapped on one another during a trade skirmish that escalated faster than a toddler tantrum.
Cranes are seen at the Port Newark Container Terminal in Newark, New Jersey on April 8.
Cranes are seen at the Port Newark Container Terminal in Newark, New Jersey on April 8.
CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images
The United States will drop its tariffs on Chinese imports from a mind-boggling 145 percent down to a still-devastating 30 percent. China will lower its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods from 125 percent to 10 percent. And then, after 90 days? Who knows. Maybe more chaos. Maybe more tweets—or "truths." Maybe another press conference with a headline-grabbing pivot. Your guess is as good as, if not better than, mine.
Let's not sugarcoat what just happened: This isn't a strategy. It's a reset button after realizing the game was rigged from the start. And it's Exhibit A in a larger pattern of national mismanagement that defines the Trump playbook—slash, burn, threaten, and then backpedal when the consequences really begin to hit home.
Tariffs are not toy soldiers to be moved around on a geopolitical Risk board. They're real economic levers that affect jobs, prices, and long-term planning. And yet, under President Donald Trump, tariff policy has become a political stunt—a way to look tough on China without understanding how global supply chains or international diplomacy actually work. The result is an unpredictable climate where businesses can't plan, investors can't forecast, and consumers pay the price—literally.
Just ask any U.S. importer who has had to shell out a 145 percent tariff on Chinese goods. These are not hypothetical costs. These are real checks being cut, real margins being squeezed, and real decisions being made—about layoffs, price hikes, or shifting operations overseas. Or whether the business is sustainable with massive tariffs because, for many, the answer is no.
And now that those tariffs are being "temporarily" suspended or reduced, here's a question worth asking: what about the people who already paid? Do they get their money back? Do they get interest? Or do they get a thank you card (or Truth Social post) for bankrolling an economic vanity project?
Through my legal lens, any importer who paid the full 145 percent tariff might have a legal cause of action. When tariffs are imposed arbitrarily, without consistency or clarity, and then rolled back under political pressure, it raises questions about due process and the limits of executive authority under the Trade Expansion Act and other statutes. The law may permit some degree of discretion in trade matters, but it was never meant to be a blank check for economic whiplash. If your business just got bled dry on Monday and the rules changed on Tuesday, you're not wrong to wonder whether you were treated fairly under the law—or just caught in a game of economic roulette.
Even beyond the legal angle, this chaotic tariff regime reveals something more troubling: a total absence of strategic thinking. A 90-day tariff holiday is not a solution. It's a stall tactic. It leaves manufacturers and consumers stuck in a stop-start purgatory, where no one knows whether to invest, expand, or brace for impact. How do you sign a contract, price your goods, or make hiring decisions when the trade rules change faster than the weather?
And what's the endgame? Is it a new trade deal? A return to pre-tariff normalcy? Or just another photo op for the president to declare victory and move on to the next distraction? It's hard to say, because there's no coherent doctrine behind any of this. It's all muscle, no mind. The tariffs went up because Trump wanted to "win." Now they're coming down because even he can see the damage. But what remains is a chilling lesson in how not to run a global superpower.
Contrast this with how trade policy should work. Thoughtfully. Predictably. With the input of economists, diplomats, trade lawyers, and industry leaders. With an eye toward long-term competitiveness, not short-term theatrics. With stability, not surprise announcements that send markets lurching. That's how an actual government behaves. That's how you earn the trust of businesses that make the investments that power an economy.
But instead, we get amateur hour. We get seat-of-the-pants policymaking, where tariffs are wielded like blunt instruments and trade negotiations look more like reality show cliffhangers than serious diplomacy. We get economic pain with no discernible gain. And we get a president who governs not with strategy, but with impulse.
About Aron Solomon
A Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist for his groundbreaking op-ed in The Independent exposing the NFL's "race-norming" policies, Aron Solomon, JD, is a globally recognized thought leader in law, media, and strategy. As Chief Strategy Officer for AMPLIFY, he leverages his deep expertise to shape the future of legal marketing. Aron has taught entrepreneurship at McGill University and the University of Pennsylvania and was honored as a Fastcase 50 recipient, recognizing him among the world's top legal innovators.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.