The Tariff Grindset

International trade policy as masculine self-help

An underrated aspect of the Tariff issue which has blown up in the last month is that, since this is really just Trump policy-riffing - weaving, if you will - and no one truly knows what the end-game will be, commentators have worked hard to conjure post-hoc rationalisations for all that’s happening. One of the most popular is that tariffs are part of the ongoing political split between men and women, and of submerged male and feminine drives in politics. This has been expressed by both political sides in their own way, including by respetcable sources who have positioned the tariffs as the last frantic thrashing of a dying patriarchy, and with the venerable “women hardest hit” framing.