The media and the Democratic Party take any day ending in “y” to claim President Trump is perpetrating some cataclysmic event in America. Yawn. Now tariffs have brought out the Chicken Littles on Wall Street, some billionaire donors, and a handful of skittish Republicans.

It is too soon, way overblown, and completely missing the point and expectations of the tariffs that Trump promised on the campaign trail. There will be some pain in the short term, but there is the potential for enormous, generational gain in the long term.

With the stock market plunge following the tariff announcements last week, President Trump’s wealthiest allies began panicking about tariffs and coming out against them — killing in the cradle the nascent talking point that even the wealthiest were too afraid of Trump to criticize him. You know, because he’s a fascist or a Nazi or something. That was barely out of the anchors’ mouths before a bevy of billionaires bellied up to the mic to publicly criticize the tariffs.

This is the thousandth example of how wrong the media and the left always are about Trump. Recall how, until last week, one of the talking points was how Trump and his billionaire friends were all trying to steal from the American people, conniving to get even richer! Sure, it was stupid. Why would a man worth $200 billion steal grandma’s social security check? But it’s hilarious now, as Trump’s billionaire supporters, from Elon Musk to Bill Ackman to Jamie Dimon, are encouraging Trump to pause or stop the tariffs.

It's not going to happen. Trump is steadfast in his belief in the effectiveness of this strategy, and we are already seeing why.

Over the weekend, about 70 countries around the globe had contacted the White House about negotiating new trade deals. By Tuesday, that number had risen to 70 countries, according to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and the first negotiations were already being set for this week. In the past few days, Israel, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Zimbabwe have already said they will zero out their tariffs on American goods if the U.S. will. They are not our biggest trade partners, but a great start.

Nations around the world are muting the incessant negative chatter of TDS America because they understand Trump means what he says.

On Monday, Japan, our fourth largest trade partner behind China, and on Tuesday, South Korea, our sixth largest trading partner behind Germany, said they wanted to start negotiations. That is two of the 70 countries. Even the European Union says it will zero out tariffs on industrial goods if the US will. That is not a lot of their tariffs, but it is also a start, and it demonstrates willingness even while they talk tough publicly.

The first countries to the table will get the quick and best deals, while the laggers will get worse deals. This is all part of Trump’s masterful ability to negotiate against intransigents when he has leverage, and he has a lot of leverage. 

Only China is really pushing back by ratcheting up its tariffs. This is also not surprising, considering they see themselves as the global equivalent of the United States and the hegemon of Asia. But the truth is that, in the aggregate, China needs our purchasing more than we need their sales. If trade ended with China, it would cause a lot of pain in America, but it could destroy the CCP. 

And as we are seeing, China could become increasingly isolated, and if it stuck to its position, would find the rest of the world eating up the huge and lucrative American market share. So, in the end, barring a distraction via a Taiwan invasion, for instance, China will ultimately have to play ball with Trump.

The previously reeling stock market has taken note of this rapid response by other countries to negotiate and, on Tuesday, was recovering strongly, up about four percent, before ending the day down in the last hour, less than one percent, likely on news that the Chinese are following through with their tariffs.

So, the US tariffs are largely doing just as advertised. They are powerful American leverage to alter the global trade deals that have been screwing middle-class, working Americans for generations. And most of the world is reacting as expected. While Wall Street types and global corporate conglomerates were freaking out about the stock market, who wasn’t freaking out were millions of blue-collar workers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and throughout the rest of the American heartland.

The dirty and damning revelation is that America has always had this leverage, it just never had a President willing to put the average American first and use it.