President Donald Trump released a video of a senior counselor of the White House for trade and manufacturing and Peter Navarro explained the history behind the tariff.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump posted a video in which Navaro explained how people like Alexander Hamilton and Henry Clay have advocated tariffs in the history of the United States. Navaro mentioned how Hamilton believed that America “needs tariffs to protect its youth industries from British domination.”
Trump said at the beginning of the video, “April 2, 2025, the day the American industry was reborn will always be remembered as the day when America’s fate was rebuilt, and the day we started making America rich again,” Trump said at the beginning of the video.
After this, Navaro started explaining that Trump “put tariffs on countries around the world.”
“Trammix aims not only to reduce America’s trade deficit, it is to defend American workers and factories against unfair trade practices, while encouraging dollars in investment in new American plants and equipment,” says Navaro. “Policy is working for America, and no one should be surprised by it.”
“This is because before the tariff became synonymous with President Donald Trump, generations of American politicians built the foundation for today’s first agenda,” Navaro continued. “His views were vested in three main principles: sovereignty, security, and security of American workers. Economic nationalism, also known as economic populism, is not new. It is the return of the proven economic model that creates the greatest industrial power in world history.”
Navaro explained how Alexander Hamilton was “original architect of American economic nationalism”.
“In his report on the manufacturers, Hamilton kept it clearly out,” Navaro continued. “The United States needed tariffs to protect its youth industries from British domination, and to secure true freedom – not only politically, but economically. Hamilton knew that if America depends on foreign powers for goods made, it would always be weak.”
“Decades later, Henry Clay carried forward Hamilton’s vision,” Navaro continued. “His American system preferred three things: a strong national bank, leading infrastructure investment, and top, protective tariff. Clay said it is best in 1824, ‘Tariff is taxed on foreign industry with an approach to promoting American industry.”
“This was used by the same logic President Trump after nearly 200 years when he called for Section 232 to put tariffs on steel and aluminum to stop foreign overproduction and to dump American jobs,” Navaro continued.
Navaro continued to explain how former President Abraham Lincoln “understood the value of the tariff”.
“During the Civil War, Tariff Revenue helped fund the union army, and after the war, he promoted a rapid industrial expansion,” Navaro continued. “Lincoln knew that protecting the American industry meant to protect American workers and protect the American nation.”
Navaro continued to say that “fake news wants us to believe that these are fringe ideas,” adding that history teaches us that they are “American traditions”.
Narro said, “President Trump’s trade agenda, especially his adventure of Tariff, attracts this long line of economic nationalism.” “From Hamilton to Clay, from Lincoln to McCinley, and now from President Donald John Trump, the main idea remains the same. Put American workers first, build American industry, protect American sovereignty. This is America’s first agenda. This is not new, it is not a new, it is definitely not radical.
