At present the U.S. is involved in a protracted trade war with China that has yielded nothing in concessions from Beijing, cost U.S. companies and consumers billions, obliterated $5 trillion from the stock market, and is threatening to tip the economy into a recession. At the White House, Donald Trump has learned the lessons of this failed strategy and decided to…drag the U.S. into another unwinnable trade war, this time with one of our neighbors and largest trading partner.

Yes, Tariff Man announced Thursday night that starting June 10, he will impose a 5 percent tariff on all Mexican imports, a levy that will “gradually increase” all the way to 25 percent until undocumented immigrants stop crossing the border. Tariffs, of course, are usually used to counter trade violations as opposed to being a blunt instrument to deal with border security, but reason and logic have no place in this administration. If they did, someone would have likely been able to get it through Trump’s head that this move will badly damage the U.S. interests, a point that has thus far eluded him.

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An across-the-board tariff on all Mexican goods would exact a serious toll on American consumers and corporations, and is likely to generate significant opposition among businesses. Rufus Yerxa, the president of the National Foreign Trade Council, which represents the nation’s largest exporters, called the move “a colossal blunder.”

Mexico is Washington’s largest trading partner, sending across the border items like tomatoes, cars, and rugs. Mexico sent the United States $346.5 billion of goods last year—meaning that a 5 percent tariff on those products would amount to a tax increase of more than $17 billion. Most of the costs would then be passed on to businesses and consumers. Mexico’s deputy foreign minister for North America, Jesús Seade, said at a hastily arranged news conference on Thursday that Mr. Trump’s announced tariffs would be “disastrous” and suggested Mexico could retaliate against American products.

Unsurprisingly, almost no one aside from Trump’s craziest advisers are happy about the latest move. Republican Senator Charles E. Grassley called the new tax “a misuse of presidential tariff authority and counter to congressional intent.” It’s also deeply counterproductive. As the Washington Post notes, “if the tariffs damaged the Mexican economy, more of its citizens would try to cross the border to find work” in the U.S. “Mexico is our friend and neighbor, a partner in trade and security,” Glenn Hamer, chief executive of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said in a statement. “The president’s announcement is baffling and, if carried out, will be terribly damaging.” Deborah Elms, executive director of the Asian Trade Centre, told Bloomberg “This action will be subject to global condemnation,” saying that Trump has “gone rogue.”

Meanwhile, the White House has been characteristically vague about what Mexico could do to actually satisfy America’s capricious commander in chief. Speaking in the broadest of terms, Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of homeland security, told reporters that Mexico must increase security at the Guatemalan border, crack down on gangs, and do more to help the U.S. with asylum-seekers. “We are going to judge success here by the number of people crossing the border and that number needs to come down substantially,” said acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, adding that the U.S. (read: Trump) will judge Mexico’s progress on a “day-to-day, week-to-week basis.” He also said that the number of Democrats consulted before the announcement was “zero.”

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