The Irish Independent’s View: Ronald Reagan’s lessons on the futility of tariffs and trade wars are lost on Donald Trump

“We’re in the same boat with our trading partners. If one partner shoots a hole in the boat, does it make sense for the other one to shoot another hole in the boat? Some say yes, and call that getting tough. Well, I call it stupid.

” These were the words of US president Ronald Reagan in a 1987 radio address from Camp David. ‘The Gipper’ Ronald Reagan used to be an icon of the Republican Party, encapsulating what the party represents on right-leaning ideologies of conservatism, social conservatism and economic libertarianism..