Critics of Trump are hysterical over his promise of reciprocal tariffs, and fundamentally disagree with his positions on the economy. They blame Trump for the price of eggs, the Russia/Ukraine war, DOGE and Elon Musk, and decry cuts to the federal government and federal employees. Much of this criticism is Trump Derangement Syndrome, but a lot of it is because of a lack of understanding of basic economics.

What many Americans are not aware of is that tariffs funded the American economy prior to the income tax, which meant that Americans did not have money taken from their paychecks – they kept everything they earned until they decided to spend it.