No one, including even MAGA supporters, believes that Donald Trump will actually fulfill his promise to send $5,000 checks to all adult Americans. 

His desperate pledge is dependent upon a total Republican victory in the mid-term elections resulting in continued Republican majorities in both the U.S. House and Senate.

Not going to happen.

There is a further feature of Trump's boast that deserves continued scrutiny.  With his usual wild exaggeration he speaks of "trillions
of dollars" of income from tariffs paid by sending countries to pay for the $5,000 checks.  Over and over he credits tariffs for producing an extraordinary influx of foreign funds when it is a basic fact that American companies and ultimately American consumers pay the tariffs as an internal tax.

No American President can lawfully set and collect tariffs at his whim. The Constitution assigns that function solely to the
Congress. Tariffs have worsened the "affordability crisis" for everyone.  Even the required refunds from Trump's early illegal tariffs go to the corporations and not to individual taxpayers who face higher costs as a result of those tariffs.

What respect can we have or the leaders of other countries have for an American President who has been and remains so wrong about so central a policy as his tariffs?

James Matlack lives in Camden