Will Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs restore American manufacturing?

President Donald Trump has declared April 2, 2025, “Liberation Day” — but many Americans are worried that his reciprocal tariff plan will not liberate them but only make life harder.

While economist Stephen Moore can see why they’d be afraid, he also understands why they shouldn’t be.

“Trump does have a very important point,” Moore tells Glenn Beck on “The Glenn Beck Program.” “Which is that a lot of people don’t understand that we are the lowest-tariff country in the world right now, among all the major trading partners.”

“What Trump is simply saying is it’s not a level playing field. It’s not fair. These countries are not playing by the rules, and they need to trade with the United States, so they better get their act together. They better start treating us fairly, or he’s going to hit them with these tariffs,” Moore explains.

However, there will be rising prices for Americans as a result of these tariffs.

“Short-term pain for long-term gain,” Moore says. “I’m a little worried about it, but I will say this: Trump is the single best negotiator I’ve ever met in my life, and I think in the end, he will prevail.”

Glenn is concerned but optimistic as well.

“There might be some short-term effects because we could turn the negotiating power on pretty quickly,” Glenn says. “Or is he trying to bring manufacturing back?”

“These are complicated questions, and I can’t get in Donald Trump’s mind,” Moore responds. “Let’s start with why he won this election. He won the election by winning blue-collar, middle-class voters into the Republican Party, many of whom had voted Democratic but realized that Trump was the one who really stood behind them.”

Moore believes that what Trump is doing besides tariffs reflects why he was voted in.

“For example, an article in the Wall Street Journal this weekend, didn’t get a lot of attention on the front page, was that Trump is deregulating our economy. It’s going to reduce costs for American companies by as much as a trillion dollars. Makes us very competitive,” Moore explains.

However, Glenn would like to see Trump discuss tax cuts more.

“I’m not seeing enough about cutting the regulation and also tax cuts, because if you don’t have those to go along with tariffs, this isn’t going to work,” Glenn says.

“Great minds think alike,” Moore agrees.

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