'Forcing powerful people to plead for mercy': How tariffs combine '2 of Trump’s favorite' features

Countless economists, both liberal and conservative, are warning that President Donald Trump's aggressive new tariffs on Canada, Mexico and other countries will create unnecessary hardships for both businesses and consumers. But Trump is doubling down on his tariffs policy, setting off an all-out trade war with longtime U.S. allies.

Washington Post reporter Rachel Van Dongen, in a March 17 post on X, formerly Twitter, argued that Trump favors tariffs because of the power he believes they give him.

Van Dongen tweeted, "Tariffs combine two of Trump’s favorite features of the presidency: They are a unilateral power that he can turn on or off on a whim, and they create a begging economy, forcing powerful people to come before him to plead for mercy."

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The Post reporter made her point by tweeting a March 17 article by New York Times reporters Jonathan Swan, Maggie Haberman and Ana Swanson, who detailed the effect that Trump's tariffs will have on the auto industry.

Trump, they reported, is telling auto executives to brace for tariffs whether they like them or not. And those execs, Van Dongen implies in her tweet, are the sort of "powerful people" Trump enjoys having leverage over.

"In a phone call from the Oval Office," Swan, Haberman and Swanson explained, "President Trump had just delivered unwelcome news to three of America's most powerful auto executives: Mary Barra of General Motors, John Elkann of Stellantis and Jim Farley of Ford. Everyone needs to buckle up, Mr. Trump said on the call, which took place in early March. Tariffs are going into effect on April 2. It’s time for everyone to get on board."

The Times reporters continued, "The auto chiefs, like the leaders of other industries, had been arguing that Mr. Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on cars coming from Canada and Mexico would wreak havoc on their supply chains and blow a hole through their industry. They had won a concession of sorts when Mr. Trump agreed to give them a one-month reprieve, until April 2. But now, the Big Three automaker chiefs seemed to realize there was no point in fighting for more. They had gotten as much as they were going to get."

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