A Trade Weapon

For most of U.S. history, tariffs were a solution to specific economic problems. Washington used them to raise money and to protect U.S. industries from foreign competitors. And after World War II, presidents used tariffs selectively.

President Trump has upended this practice. He says he’ll use tariffs to solve a raft of policy problems, such as migration and territorial expansion. On Sunday, he threatened Colombia with 25 percent tariffs after it turned away two airplanes carrying deported immigrants. The government in Bogotá quickly reversed course.

It’s a strategy rarely seen from other presidents — and one that Trump is now deploying almost daily, as my colleague Alan Rappeport and I describe in a story The Times published this morning. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain.

An all-purpose tool

Since taking office, Trump has told several nations he would tax imports from their countries if they didn’t do what he wants. He said he would put a 25 percent tariff on products from Canada and Mexico and a 10 percent tariff on products from China unless those countries stopped flows of drugs and migrants into the United States.

He has also said he would put tariffs on Russia for waging war in Ukraine and on Denmark if it refused to cede the territory of Greenland. Colombia’s quick capitulation this weekend may embolden Trump, raising questions for the rest of the world about how far he will take the strategy.

Past presidents have typically issued tariffs in response to trade issues — a surge of imported tires from China that hurt American tire makers, subsidies Canada gave to its loggers, a European quota on banana imports.