1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

End the Liberation Day tariffs. The April 2, 2025 tariff regime — rates ranging from 10 to 48 percent on imports from nearly every trading partner — has failed on every metric its architects promised. Manufacturing employment hasn't recovered. Construction spending on manufacturing has collapsed. Import prices are up, meaning American consumers and businesses are paying these tariffs, not foreign exporters. The political reality is just as damning. Support for these tariffs is essentially limited to the roughly 20 percent of the population that backs whatever Trump does. That's not a constituency — that's a cult of personality. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is moving on without us: India and the EU just finalized a free trade deal after decades of stalled talks, and Canada is seeking EU associate membership to replace what we threw away. The U.S. built the rules-based trading system that kept global commerce stable for generations. These tariffs torched that credibility in a single announcement. Congress has the authority to claw back trade powers from the executive branch. Use it.