The clip used of Reagan also cut it short of his statement that some tariffs are necessary. Also, the country was in a very different place in the 1980s than it is today with regards to US manufacturing/farming.

While I'm generally a fan of free trade, there are limitations with where another nation is effectively abusing its own people and creating working conditions that are very different than in the US and in fact not fair trade. I'm also of the mindset that domestic production should be at least somewhat propped up as a necessary component of domestic security/safety.

I'm not convinced that Reagan might have some slightly different views of tariffs today given the altered environment.

To me, this is a lesson that should have been learned under COVID... a similar concern is the consolidation of middlemen in terms of food production and delivery. I'd like to see more competition with meat packers and other agriculture processing groups that aren't sucking every cent possible out of the middle leaving the producers (farms) and consumers (people) with as little as possible while delivering absolutely minimal value add. Not even going into the mega farm, or the likes of Tyson in terms of non-ownership of production to farmers maintaining all the burden. I'd like to see more states require localized packing and distribution channels for more products from whole.

Sounds like a nice fact-check.

But Mr. Krugman really shoulda put more emphasis on another couple facts: That only "convenient" facts matter to Trump's political base. And that Washington decision makers who care about facts are going the way of the 8-track tape.