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With Trump’s tariffs promising to be a big topic of conversation ahead of next week’s “Liberation Day,” we connected with Eric Rauchway, a UC Davis distinguished history professor and an expert on early 20th century America, to better understand what exactly Trump is getting wrong.

“The McKinley tariff was one of a series of laws passed in Congress in the 1890s that actually precipitated a severe economic downturn. If we had better data on it, we’d probably think of it like the Great Depression,” Rauchway told us. “There are millions of people unemployed. This is an era where you have armies of the unemployed protesting. It’s what helped give rise to the progressive movement.”

Rauchway went on to point out that ultimately, Trump’s ideas about the economy are incoherent.

“He wants the society of the 1950s with the policies of the 1890s. But you literally don’t get the society of the 1950s without a comprehensive rejection of the policies of the 1890s, even by Republicans,” he said.

A full transcript of Rauchway’s conversation with Public Notice contributor Thor Benson, lightly edited for length and clarity, follows
https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-mckinley-tariffs-rauchway-interview