Trump Is Wrong About McKinley's Tariff Legacy

ON HIS FIRST day back in office, Donald Trump praised his new presidential role model, William McKinley, for having "made our country very rich through tariffs."

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He then signed an executive order re-renaming the highest peak in North America "Mount McKinley." The 25th president, Trump wrote in the order, "heroically led our Nation to: victory in the Spanish-American War.

Under his leadership, the United States enjoyed rapid economic growth and prosperity, including an expansion of territorial gains for the Nation. [He] championed tariffs to protect U.S. manufacturing, boost domestic production, and drive U.S. industrialization and global reach to new heights." Twelve days later, Trump announced (then waffled on) blanket 25 percent tariffs on goods coming from Canada and Mexico. "Anybody that's against Tariffs," he contended on social media, "is only against them because these people or entities are controlled by China, or other foreign or domestic companies. Anybody that loves and believes in the United States of America is in favor of Tariffs." Who knew that McKinley was controlled by China? It is true that the self-styled "tariff man"-his political opponents preferred the more derisive "Napoleon of protection"-was the biggest public face of mercantilism during America's high-tariff era of 1870-1912. As a congressman, he wrote what came to be known as the "McKinley tariff" of 1890, and as president he signed another increase in 1897.

But a funny thing happened after the U.S. came out of the Panic (and subsequent four-year depression) of 1893: Goosed by sharp increases in domestic iron and copper production, Americans had too many goods chasing too few consumers. And McKinley himself began agitating to tear down some of those trade barriers.