The ad features portions of a Reagan radio address 38 years ago in which he said tariffs and other trade barriers “hurt every American worker and consumer.”
Trump, who has raised tariffs to the highest levels since the 1930s, calls the 60-spot a “fake” intended to “illegally interfere” with the Supreme Court’s breakdown of many of the duties he has imposed.
“They fraudulently took a big purchase ad saying that Ronald Reagan did not like Tariffs, when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY,” Trump said in a social media post.
But Reagan’s trade policies were more complicated than the president suggests. Trump is in the tricky position of seeking to defend his tariffs without highlighting just how far he has pulled the Republican event away from Reagan, who is still revered by most conservatives.
“President Trump has not only gone against decades of American trade policy but also ditched traditional Republican views on trade,” said Michael Klein, a Fletcher School economist and executive editor of EconoFact, which produces nonpartisan analyses of economic and social policies.
Rewind: On Thursday evening, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute complained in a post on X that Ontario “misrepresented” Reagan’s remarks and didn’t ask permission to use or edit them.
A few hours later, Trump abruptly suspended trade talks with Canada, citing the foundation’s post.
The next day, Premier Doug Ford said he would pull the offending ad after the weekend. But it ran during that night’s World Series broadcast, and on Saturday morning, Trump told reporters he would banger Canada with an extra 10 percent tariff.
Zoom in: While the commercial reorders parts of Reagan’s April 1987 speech — one of his weekly radio addresses — it neither alters his words nor exaggerates his aversion to tariffs.
“High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars,” Reagan said. “The result is more and more tariffs, higher and higher trade barriers, and less and less competition. So, soon, because of the prices made artificially high by tariffs that subsidize inefficiency and poor management, people stop buying. Then the worst happens: Markets shrink and collapse; businesses and industries shut down; and millions of people lose their jobs.”
But the ad ignores a key piece of historical context: Reagan used the address to explain his decision to order steep duties on Japanese semiconductor imports even though, he said, “tariffs or trade barriers and restrictions of any kind are steps that I am loath to take.”
It was a “special case,” Reagan said, because the government had evidence Japan was violating an agreement to stop dumping semiconductors on the US market at below cost.
“As I’ve often said: Our commitment to free trade is also a commitment to fair trade,” he said.
The big picture: Reagan saw tariffs as a last resort after other efforts had failed. It’s an approach Trump has turned upside down by using import taxes as the first step to force scores of countries into high-pressure negotiations.
Reagan abided by trade laws. Trump has largely ignored them, instead relying on a novel interpretation of a law designed to address national emergencies to justify his reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries.
The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to Trump’s use of that emergency powers act next week, though it allowed the reciprocal duties to remain in place until it issues a ruling.
But: Trump’s complaint isn’t entirely off base. Reagan signed the Trade and Tariff Act of 1984, which expanded presidential authority to retaliate against unfair practices. And he exercised that authority to set tariffs not only on Japanese chips, but also foreign-made motorcycles, specialty steel, and footwear.
In a 1988 report, the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, cited a host of measures implemented by the Reagan administration, including forcing Japan to accept restraints on auto exports, tightening quotas on imported sugar, and pressuring Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea into highly restrictive agreements on textiles and apparel.
“Ronald Reagan by his actions has become the most protectionist president since Herbert Hoover, the heavyweight champion of protectionists,” the report said.
Cato has been a vocal critic of Trump’s trade policies.
Final thought: The key difference between Reagan and Trump on trade: Reagan saw fair trade as essential to the global economy; Trump only likes trade where the US comes out on leading.
“Protectionism is being used by some American politicians as a budget-friendly form of nationalism,” Reagan said in a November 1988 radio address. “Our peaceful trading partners are not our enemies; they are our allies.”
Larry Edelman can be reached at larry.edelman@globe.com.
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