SORRY, BUT ALL THE BEST PEOPLE TOLD ME THIS WAS IMPOSSIBLE: Michael Walsh: Trump is proving America’s power through economic warfare.

With the most recent jobs reports to back him up — the president boasted Friday about 400,000 new manufacturing jobs since he took office — Trump has decided that the benefits outweigh the risks. He has history on his side. Tariffs were once a staple of our domestic and foreign policy, employed judicially by Washington, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt. “The tariff makes manufactures profitable,” wrote TR in his 1902 State of the Union message.

Tariffs and fiscal and monetary policies can have diplomatic uses, too — and today, with the American economy booming, the Trump administration is finally swinging the big stick of tariffs and sanctions as a non-lethal substitute for diplomatic or even military action.

Well, stay tuned.