Trump's tariffs take aim at Mexico -- and hit American consumers

SAN DIEGO -- President Trump is at it again. He is exploiting an issue he can't figure out, oversimplifying a complicated world and casting foreigners as the cause of America's problems.

That's how Trump rolls. First, he seized on immigration. He claimed to back legal immigration even as he tried to cut it in half by tying it to education and skills. He also blamed external factors for illegal immigration while excusing U.S. employers who can't get their fill of illegal immigrants.

As Trump sees it, the United States is being invaded -- with the help of Mexico. Americans are victims who need not take responsibility for anything.

Darn, I was way off. I thought people had been coming north for decades because of vast economic disparities between the United States and Latin American countries, because immigrant families from Mexico to Honduras have known the way to U.S. cities for generations, because Americans are addicted to cheap and dependable illegal-immigrant labor, and because we parents are raising kids with a poor work ethic who won't go anywhere near the dirty and dangerous jobs that immigrants do without complaint.

It never occurred to me that it was all Mexico's doing. Ay caramba!

Now Trump has brought his deductive reasoning skills to the issue of trade. And since he was a Democrat most of his life, it's not surprising that the president embraces protectionism and uses tariffs as a club.

Having already targeted China with nothing to show for it, Trump has once again set his sights on his favorite piñata -- Mexico.

Over the objections of some of his own advisers and cabinet officials, the president is mixing together trade and immigration. It would be one thing if Trump were trying to remedy some alleged cheating by Mexico in a trade deal. But Trump's beef with Mexico has nothing to do with trade.

The president wants Mexico to do something that he has failed to do, and with more resources than Mexico has to work with. He expects Mexico to stop the flow of migrants into the United States, along the U.S.-Mexico border.

If Mexico doesn't solve this problem for us, Trump has threatened to impose a 5% tariff on all products imported from Mexico starting June 10. The penalty would, according to Trump, gradually increase until the problem is fixed. By October, it could be as high as 25%.

That's brilliant. It took Americans at least four decades to make a mess of immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border. Now Trump is giving the Mexicans four months to clean it up.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, officials apprehended 132,887 people in May along the U.S.-Mexico border. That's the largest monthly total since 2006.

Those taken into custody include tens of thousands of people who are trying to come legally -- at least as they understand the process for seeking asylum. Let's not be so quick to slap the "illegal" label on those desperate women and children who are fleeing violence and hoping for refugee status. That is not fair.

Nor is it accurate to say that the proposed tariffs are aimed at Mexico. Will someone please explain to the president how tariffs work? They are not a tax on countries. They are a tax on products, and the people who pay the tax are the folks who buy those products.

The Mexican government isn't really involved. The tariff is aimed at U.S. companies who have moved operations to Mexico because labor unions in the United States artificially inflate the wages of U.S. workers to a level that is unsustainable if companies want to stay in business.

Years ago, I visited a U.S. automaker in the border town of Tijuana. Under the Trump tariff, the cars produced at this plant would have an extra tax attached to them when imported into the United States. That tax would not be on Mexico. It would be levied on the U.S. automaker, which isn't going to pay it either. The company will just raise the price of the car, and the U.S. consumer will pay the tariff.

And for those who think the answer is to simply not buy cars from that company, that would just eliminate a competitor from the market, which would likely prompt other companies to raise their prices.

Good plan. It's no wonder the major pushback to the Trump tariff seems to be coming from Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Only one major political party understands economics. So naturally, they chose as their leader someone who doesn't.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, "Navarrette Nation," is available through every podcast app.