IRA

My parents gave me an uncommon name. I’ve been comfortable with it for many years, which is fortunate since I am 77. But I’ll admit that it still irks me when I get a letter addressed to Ms. Ira Shapiro.

However, IRA turns out to be a valuable acronym. Individual Retirement Account. Inflation Reduction Act. Irish Republican Army. And now, the acronym’s highest calling and, in my mind, best use: Impeach and Remove Already.

In my March 31 Substack post reviewing the first seventy days of Donald J. Trump’s second presidency, I concluded that he should be impeached and removed. My argument was straight forward. Trump won a close election, but it was a decisive victory. That gave him the right to fight for his agenda to change the direction of the country. It did not give him the right to dismantle the federal government, radically change and weaponize our legal system, undermine public health and safety, destroy our most important alliances, switch sides in the war between Ukraine and Russia, or carry out an assault on our universities, the press, law firms, and other pillars of civil society. Nor did it give him the right to run roughshod over the civil rights and liberties of our people, and substitute unilateral action for Congress’ Article I authority to enact laws and appropriate funds.

I concluded: “We can have our contentious, flawed, vibrant democracy. Or we can have Donald Trump as president. But we cannot have both.”

I wrote that before Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day’ tariffs.

Trump’s imposition of “reciprocal tariffs’ against virtually other trading nation was a seismic economic event with no precedent in our history. Overnight, the American president administered a massive self-inflicted wound to a U.S. economy that had been extremely healthy, in fact, the envy of the world. In two days, U.S. stocks lost over $6.5 trillion in value.

Of course, the repercussions from Trump’s tariffs have been global. In the eighty years since the end of World War II, American economic stability and predictability have been the cornerstones of the global economic and financial system. Global confidence in America had already been shaken by the head spinning policy changes resulting from a series of presidents from Bush to Obama to Trump to Biden to Trump again. But now, “the whole world has decided that the U.S. government has no idea what it’s doing,” said Mark Blyth, a political economist at Brown University.

The stock market rebounded quickly when Trump announced that he was pausing most of the tariffs for ninety days. But that euphoria lasted about twenty-four hours when it became clear that there was still no certainty in the future and that Trump was doubling down on his trade war with China. Seemingly every day brought a new announcement: 145% tariffs on China; exceptions for cell phones, computer equipment and many electronic components; China’s decision to restrict the sale of rare earth elements and rare earth magnets crucial to automobiles, airplanes, and electronics. As Peter Goodman reported in the New York Times (April 14), “his trade war—now focused intently on China---has raised the prospect of a worldwide economic downturn while damaging American credibility as a responsible steward of peace and prosperity.”

Trade conflict between America and China has been a constant for the past decade, but during Trump’s first term and Joe Biden’s presidency, there was a recognition that full decoupling of the two largest economies in the world was impossible, and that the relationship, however contentious, had to be managed to avert full scale trade war and the enormous economic damage, and increased military tension that would follow. Now, however, Trump’s determination to unilaterally remake the U.S.-China relationship has put our country, China, and the world into a far more dangerous place.

Patricia Cohen writing in the New York Times today observed: “Economists and policymakers around the globe still seem to be rubbing their eyes in wonder that an American president single-handedly threw the world into such economic turmoil, and then celebrated.” As Goodman wrote in the New York Times, “even an abrupt decision by the White House to pause most tariffs on all trading partners except China failed to dislodge the sense that a new era is underway—one in which the United States must be viewed as a potential rogue actor.”

American business leaders who have been bending over backwards to ingratiate themselves to Trump, or at least avoid becoming one of his targets, have begun speaking out. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase said that “recession was the likely outcome” from Trump’s tariffs. Ed Bastian, the CEO of Delta Airlines, pulled the company’s financial forecast for the year “given broad economic uncertainty around global trade.” Larry Fink, Blackrock’s CEO, said “we are probably in a recession right now.”

A bipartisan group of senators led by Chuck Schumer and Rand Paul has introduced legislation to repeal the national emergency declaration that Trump made to justify his tariffs. But in fact, the real national emergency we face is the radical, untethered president. Trump has done shocking damage to our country in less than ninety days in office. It is nineteen months until the off-year elections, and it’s hard to imagine how much more harm Trump will do in that time.

There is a potential silver lining here. The most divisive president in our history may yet bring us together. From Main Street to Wall Street; from farms to factories; in blue states and red states, every American shares an interest in economic stability and prosperity. No American benefits from the chaos and economic hardship caused by the whimsical and irrational decisions of one man who acknowledges operating on “instinct.” Everyone should realize by now that Trump will not moderate or compromise; he will respond to criticism and failure by doubling down. Our Founders gave us a recall method to deal with a president who abuses his power in a way that threatens the constitutional order. Time to use it. IRA