Trump takes on trade, and the Dow tumbles

President Trump seems determined to bring down his own presidency, his party and now with it the American economy by starting a futile trade war.

Trump told a group of executives meeting at the White House on Thursday he intends to impose tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum likely next week. Before the day was out the Dow had plummeted 1.7 percent. Its steep decline continued yesterday as if investors were yelling, “Can you hear us now!”

This is quite likely the most ideologically hide-bound, counterproductive move Trump has made since entering the White House.

Early Friday, Trump defended himself via Twitter, writing “When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win.”

Well, no. But the notion is so monumentally stupid it’s hard to know where to begin.

First, it will raise the price of virtually everything we buy from a can of beer to the price of a car to the buildings springing up all over places like the Seaport district. Does anyone really care that the girders for some of those buildings are made with steel imported from “far off” Canada (the largest single supplier of imported steel)?

Which brings us to the second hideously wrong thing about this move. Trump intends to invoke Section 232, claiming a threat to national security. If he’s aiming at China, someone might want to tell the president that only 2.2 percent of steel imports come from China.

Then there’s the very distinct possibility that trading partners will retaliate against U.S. goods. And that could mean anything — but farm products and Americanmade machinery are likely targets.

“Make no mistake: If the president goes through with this, it will kill American jobs — that’s what every trade war ultimately does,” said U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.).

This is — so far — just another Trump rant, but one he seems intent on going through with over the objections of his own economic adviser Gary Cohn and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

Mattis, in a memo to Congress, gave the lie to the national security argument by pointing out that U.S. military requirements for steel and aluminum represent about 3 percent of U.S. production. However, he also said the Pentagon is “concerned about the negative impact on our key allies.”

Won’t someone find a way to save this president from his own worst instincts?