President Donald Trump’s defenders often frame his trade policies as prioritizing economic development over the free market.

In their telling, America has an interest in manufacturing valuable goods domestically, even if producing such wares in the US is not maximally profitable right now. Our nation might not currently make semiconductors as well as Taiwan or electric vehicles as well as China. But if we protect our nascent chip and EV industries, they might eventually become globally competitive. And that could make America wealthier, as the international market for such technologies will be large and opportunities for productivity gains in those industries are significant.

This is a reasonable argument for the utility of tariffs in some contexts. But it doesn’t amount to a case for Do

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