Americans are feeling the sting of President Trump’s tariffs. Consumer goods ranging from coffee and watches to toys and televisions are experiencing a jump in prices. Meanwhile, socialist frontrunner and New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani attacks private enterprise and advocates for even more state control. Amid this storm, the old right needs to hold the line on economics against the rising tide of protectionism on its own side. If it fails, American businesses and consumers will continue to suffer, and Mamdani-style socialism will look more attractive, especially to young people.
Mamdani’s recent victory in the NYC primary reminded Americans of what bad economic policy could look like on the left, namely government-controlled grocery stores and citywide rent freezes. To put it mildly, these proposals are economically naïve. Profit margins in the grocery industry are already razor thin, so the only way to sell food at lower prices is to lose money. Rent control has only ever hurt the people it is meant to help by reducing the incentive to build and thus creating shortages of rental housing.
No matter. Socialists like Mamdani continue to argue against all empirical evidence that if prices are too high, it is because a greedy Scrooge McDuck somewhere is squeezing the little guy for every last penny.
The White House is reportedly looking for ways to get Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa to end his campaign. Since Mayor Eric Adams dropped out last month, this would free up Andrew Cuomo to defeat Mamdani in November’s general election. Though this strategy seems likely to fail — polls show Mamdani defeating Cuomo, even in a one-on-one race — the very attempt is suggestive of a longstanding Republican consensus.
Until recently, the American right understood that only good economic policy could dampen the lure of bad economic policy. In other words, it understood that the correct response to seductive but dangerous proposals like Mamdani’s is economic dynamism, a key component of which is global trade.
The rise of Donald Trump has brought an end to this consensus. Trump believes that tariffs are an effective policy to reshore American manufacturing. This view is not only economically illiterate, but if left unchecked, it will fuel the rise of Mamdani-style socialism.
First, tariffs are a tax on consumers. If there was ever any doubt on this point, it is now undeniable. The Consumer Price Index — which measures the cost of a broad basket of everyday goods and services — rose by 2.9 percent in August from a year earlier, more than it would have without the tariffs. As a result, inflation stands at a stubborn 3.1 percent. Retailers from Walmart to Ikea are raising their prices due to the president’s trade war.
Trump has argued that short-term economic pain would ultimately be worth it when the tariffs bear fruit, presumably in the form of high-paying domestic jobs. This summer, the European Union, Japan, and South Korea pledged to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the United States in exchange for tariff relief. The administration cited this as proof that its strategy was working.
Practical considerations cast serious doubt on this optimism. For one, the exact meaning of these pledges is unclear. Governments do not have the authority to compel domestic industries to make investments in the United States. Even if they did, the White House does not have the capacity to enforce the pledges, except of course by imposing more tariffs.
But the deeper problem with the president’s strategy is that it is simply unlikely to work. One 2025 study estimated that American manufacturing employment actually decreased by around 2.7 percent due to Trump’s 2018-2019 tariffs. Two earlier studies found similar results.
These findings are inconvenient for the protectionist right, which continues to maintain that raising the price of foreign goods will boost production of local ones. But American businesses do not only import finished products — they import inputs as well. Raising the price of imports can therefore harm the very businesses tariffs are meant to help by making production more expensive. For instance, steel-consuming jobs in America outnumber steel-producing ones 80 to 1. Raising the price of steel through tariffs thus benefits one worker at the expense of 80. The implication is clear: Trump’s tariff strategy will continue to hurt consumers with no upside for workers whatsoever.
Americans — young Americans in particular — are flirting with socialism because the cost of living is too high. Leftists like Mamdani feed on this legitimate frustration by proposing economic policies that should have been consigned to the dustbin of history long ago. Trump-style protectionism responds with an economic theory as outdated as the socialism it opposes. Regardless of who wins this fight, the American people lose.
The old right needs to stand in the breach.
Free enterprise and free trade will not solve all of America’s problems. They may not have the same ring as free jobs and free stuff. But at least they won’t make everything worse. Right now, they are what America needs.