‘Fraudulent’ Use of Reagan

Don’t piss Trump off: On Saturday, President Donald Trump announced an additional 10 percent tariff on all goods imported from Canada because he was angry about the “fraudulent” use of Ronald Reagan’s words in an anti-tariff ad produced by the province of Ontario.

Trump: “They cheated on a commercial. Ronald Reagan loved tariffs and they said he didn’t. And I guess it was AI or something. They cheated badly. Canada got caught cheating on a commercial. Can you believe it?” pic.twitter.com/3EzUEsDbxW

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 25, 2025

The commercial in fact used very standard editing, with nothing deceptive that distorted the meaning. All the words were from Reagan’s 1987 speech condemning protectionism and advocating free trade:

When someone says, ‘Let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports,’ it looks like they’re doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes for a short while it works—but only for a short time….High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars….Then the worst happens: Markets shrink and collapse; businesses and industries shut down; and millions of people lose their jobs.

Throughout the world there’s a growing realization that the way to prosperity for all nations is rejecting protectionist legislation and promoting fair and free competition. America’s jobs and growth are at stake.

Ontario has now pulled the anti-tariff ad off the air, which strikes me as an odd decision. The damage has already been done, and what’s the point in kowtowing? Do they believe he’ll keep ratcheting the tariffs up the longer it stays on?

This lays bare what many people have been saying all along: There’s not much rhyme or reason to Trump’s protectionism. It’s not a cohesive economic theory. It’s not about shoring up critical American defense capabilities or supply-chain sturdiness in the event of war. It’s not about revitalization of the hollowed-out Rust Belt. It’s not about trying to get revenue so taxes can be cut (or so the federal government can work its way out of the debt hole). It’s about…Trump wanting to impose tariffs, and believing contra all logic and evidence that they’re part of the path to prosperity.

Argentina’s election: The results are in. President Javier Milei’s party, La Libertad Avanza, did very, very well in the midterm elections held yesterday—far better than expected, receiving more than 40 percent of the vote.

The election was widely viewed as a referendum on his progress so far. Argentine voters were deciding whether they wanted to stay the course despite the short-term pain caused by some of the president’s attempts to curb inflation and excess government spending.

Consider Bloomberg‘s illustrative piece on yerba mate, a popular caffeinated Argentine drink (that I happen to drink a lot of). There was a national yerba mate regulatory body, called INYM, created in 2002 in response to a short period of deregulation in which planting limits had been repealed and oversupply had driven prices down, pissing off farmers. It had extensive powers to set prices—until Milei reined it in. The inflation-adjusted cost of the drink then fell.

Now—just like in the early ’00s—there’s been a political backlash from the growers themselves. The courts have also tried to block Milei’s deregulation, but he found a workaround: INYM can’t set price controls until its officials are appointed by the federal government, so the federal government is simply choosing not to do so.

Milei is making the correct and prudent long-term decisions, yet it looked for a moment there like he was in danger of facing terrible short-term political consequences for these policies: In Misiones, where Bloomberg interviewed growers, three congressional seats were contested. (His party ended up doing well there, though not as well as it performed nationally.)

All of this just goes to show: Milei’s agenda is deeply polarizing.

“A big question in these midterms is whether the voters in traditionally Peronist provinces that swung to Milei two years ago would stay with him,” notes Bloomberg. “At Argentina’s border, the strong peso and Bolivia’s weak currency are fueling a contraband boom in a province that shifted toward Milei in the presidential race. Voters in Salta overwhelmingly elected Milei two years ago, but as businesses close or struggle to compete with half-price products flowing over the border, frustrated voters, including Milei’s own supporters, say the illicit trade has never been this bad.” (La Libertad Avanza still performed well in Salta.)

Scenes from New York: I agree completely, and also find it somewhat sad that we’re already doing the “what worked/what didn’t” postgame, since it’s such a foregone conclusion that he’s going to win.

This entire idea that Zohran ran an economics-centered campaign is a lie cooked up by his last few weeks dodging everything else he’s ever said combined with a part of the right who wants to use him as part of their populist economics minus woke thesis. He has placed identity and… https://t.co/lydXY22Qzj

— Inez Stepman ⚪️????⚪️ (@InezFeltscher) October 26, 2025

QUICK HITS

• “I am not done” in politics, said former Vice President Kamala Harris over the weekend, hinting at the possibility of a 2028 presidential run in an interview with the BBC.
• “Negotiators have reached a framework of a trade deal to avert additional 100 percent tariffs that President Donald Trump had threatened to impose on imports from China, setting the stage for the U.S. president’s highly anticipated meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday,” reports The Washington Post. 
• “When betting the NBA, a difference of a single point—say, Vegas has the Miami Heat favored by 3 points, but you think they should be favored by 4—is enough to turn a losing bet into a winning one, or vice versa. But the availability or lack thereof of a LeBron, a Steph, or a Jokic can shift the point spread by 6 points, 8 points, or even more. It is extremely valuable to have inside information about who’s actually playing—the sort of info that the alleged conspirators had,” writes Nate Silver at Silver Bulletin, in reference to the scandal involving “the mafia, two federal indictments, and the arrest of an NBA player and head coach.”
• “If this president feels that [alleged narcotraffickers are] doing something illegally, then he should be using the Coast Guard,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego (D–Ariz.) on Meet the Press, in reference to Trump’s strikes against boats in the Caribbean. “If it’s an act of war, then you use our military, and then you come and talk to us first. But this is murder. It’s sanctioned murder that he is doing.” This comes on the heels of Trump ordering the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group to the Caribbean and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro taunting him, saying “the people of the United States know it, they are inventing a new eternal war.”