To the Editor:

Re “Tariffs on China Exact Cost for ‘Both Sides’” (front page, May 13):

Although the escalating trade war pits the world’s two largest economic powers against each other, President Trump’s chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, says the economic consequences of the tariffs will be “so small” that it’s “worthwhile doing.”

The stock market’s plunge is offering a differing opinion that the consequences are not so small or worthwhile.

William Goldman

Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.

To the Editor:

Even Larry Kudlow, President Trump’s top economic adviser, agrees that both the United States and China will bear burdens because of our president’s latest trade war escalation. It has already begun, as China has raised tariffs on $60 billion worth of American goods , and Mr. Trump is asking for an additional $15 billion in subsidies for farmers and others who will be most harmed by the new Chinese tariffs.

Donald Trump is obsessed with winning. Every issue for him is a zero-sum game: Somebody wins, and somebody loses. But in this case, nobody wins, and everybody loses.