Before the Republican Party was subsumed (or, by some measures, consumed) by MAGA, the great GOP icon was Ronald Reagan.
And while there are a few similarities between the Trump administrations and Reagan’s two consecutive terms in the White House for most of the 1980s, notably the enactment of major tax bills — the historic Tax Reform Act of 1986 under Reagan, and Trump’s signing of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act this July 4th — there obviously are differences.
Some are attributable to the styles of the two presidents.
Also, political times weren’t as overtly toxic. For example, the crafting and passage of the 1986 tax reform bill was bipartisan effort, with Reagan and Democratic Ways and Means Chair Dan Rostenkowski joining forces and taking the tax reform case to the American public to get it passed.
Another difference is in Reagan and Donald Trump approaches to global trade. That’s not just my opinion.
It’s also the take from Joseph J. Thorndike, a respected historian of U.S. fiscal and economic policy and director of the Tax History Project at Tax Analysts.
“Ronald Reagan Would Have Hated Trump’s Tariffs” is the headline on Thorndike’s recent piece for Tax Notes, the news, analysis, and commentary component of Tax Analysts.
The column kicks off this weekend’s Saturday Shout Outs.
“Reagan’s warning about the perils of protection was rooted in an optimistic view of the global economy. Trump almost always casts trade in zero-sum terms, with lots of talk about winners and losers,” writes Thorndike. “Reagan rejected this sort of framing, insisting that every nation could prosper in a world free of trade barriers. Real growth was shared growth.”
A second shout out goes this weekend to another Tax Notes trade piece, this time from Robert Goulder, a lawyer, contributing editor at Tax Analysts, and co-creator with Thorndike of the publication’s “Five Minutes On” series..
In his analysis “The Tariff Chronicles: Fake Reciprocity as Real Leverage,” Goulder looks at what happened in the 90 days the Trump administration promised to have completed 90 trade deals (spoiler #1: that promise wasn’t fulfilled), and specifically what we know about recently completed trade deals with two Southeast Asian countries (spoiler #2: not much).
Goulder notes that “thus far the administration has notched three trade deals — sort of.” And to describe these new arrangements as comprehensive trade deals “would be generous.”
Of course, the tariffs, whether in process, planned, or hoped for, might not be just about, as Trump often says, balancing the United States’ trade deficit.
Other potential tariff motivations are in the third shout out to The Washington Post story “Trump expands use of tariffs to reach national security goals.” The newspaper’s exclusive report looks at how “Trump’s freewheeling use of tariffs as a tool of American power may have been more extensive than was publicly known, encompassing an array of national security goals as well as the interests of individual companies.”
Finally, let’s close with some shout outs to coverage of the tariffs, including the new ones that went into effect last week.
A Yale Budget Lab analysis, “State of U.S. Tariffs: August 7, 2025,” shows American consumers now face an average tax rate on imports of 18.6 percent. That’s the highest since 1933.
Just what’s being taxed/tariffed? NBC News coverage in “New tariffs snap into effect, raising import taxes to highest level since Great Depression,” looks at the wide variety of products that are affected, from appliances made in the European Union to autos from Japan to food, furniture, toys, and more.
Some of the more that NBC cites is back-to-school items, according to the National Taxpayers Union. The right-leaning fiscally conservative group says in a recent press release that “As Trade-Policy Exemption Scramble Continues in DC, U.S. Families Shoulder Soaring Tariffs on Back-to-School Essentials.” It also includes the graphic below illustrating the student and classroom costs.
Maybe some of those costs can be offset by August’s remaining back-to-school state sales tax holidays.
That shopping focus dovetails nicely with this weekend’s last shout out to MSN, which is headlined, “Treasury Secretary Admits Trump's Tariffs Are Paid by Americans.”
And that’s my blogging for today. Now I’m off to buy a stash of my favorite coffee before its price goes up even more.
You also might find these items of interest:
- Trump's tariffs will increase U.S. shoppers' grocery bills
- Tariffs could dim America’s future fireworks celebrations
- U.S. moves up in latest International Tax Competitiveness Index
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