Trump wields 1930s law to tax 60 nations
- Trump uses Depression-era law to impose tariffs on 60 countries, including Canada.
- Move bypasses courts and modern trade rules, escalating economic nationalism.
- Policy treats U.S. market access as leverage, not a given.
Trump is weaponizing a nearly century-old trade statute to unilaterally tax dozens of nations, reshaping global trade norms overnight. After the Supreme Court blocked prior tariff efforts, the administration turned to the 1930s Trading with the Enemy Act and related statutes - laws never repealed, rarely used, and unchecked by modern trade courts.
According to Peter St Onge on the Peter St Onge Podcast, the White House is now levying taxes on up to 60 countries, with Canada facing 50% tariffs on cars and dairy. The goal isn’t revenue - it’s renegotiation. "This is a warning shot," St Onge argues, "to globalist leaders who treated the U.S. market as free loot."
The shift is strategic and symbolic. Where past administrations framed open U.S. markets as a public good, Trump treats access as a bargaining chip. The target isn’t just trade deficits - it’s foreign fines on American tech firms. By flipping the script from charity to leverage, the administration forces allies to the table without firing a shot.
"Trump views market access as his best weapon to stop foreign governments from raiding U.S. tech companies."
- Peter St Onge, Peter St Onge Podcast
The legal maneuver sidesteps WTO rules and congressional gridlock. But it sets a dangerous precedent: trade policy driven by executive discretion, not mutual agreement. If other nations retaliate with their own unilateral measures, the global system risks fracturing.
This isn’t just about tariffs. It’s about who writes the rules. The 1930s laws were designed for war, not commerce. Reviving them in peacetime signals that the old order is over - and that economic power now flows from raw leverage, not institutions.
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Ep. 183 News by the Numbers 8.03.2026 • Aug 3
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- Peter St. Onge reports that President Trump imposed new 10-12% tariffs on 60 countries, including the EU and Canada, citing forced labor and unfair trade practices under authority 301.
- The Trump administration also uses authority 338 for up to 50% tariffs on Canadian goods like dairy and cars, aiming to pressure Canada into trade negotiations, despite some products being protected under USMCA.
- St. Onge states the EU has fined American tech companies a total of $40 billion, prompting a US investigation under Section 301 into Europe's alleged attacks on these firms, following a $1 billion fine against Google.
- Trump's strategy treats access to the American consumer market, which accounts for one-third of global consumption, as a negotiable asset, demanding other countries lower trade barriers and buy more US goods in return.
- Peter St. Onge reports consumer prices fell 0.4% last month, indicating roughly 5% annualized deflation, primarily due to plunging energy costs, which he argues contradicts predictions of inflation Armageddon.
- St. Onge argues Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Walsh risks hiking rates into a slowing economy, as underlying inflation, per Trueflation data, was 0.7% pre-war, not the 2% reported by government statistics.
- Walsh has advocated a 'Robin Hood monetary policy' of cutting rates for Main Street, financed by canceling inflation from Fed asset purchases, and previously discussed rate cuts due to AI's deflationary potential.
- A new study cited by Peter St. Onge suggests electricity bills could fall 5% if a state doubles its data centers, due to fixed power infrastructure costs making additional customers cheaper per unit.
- St. Onge refutes criticisms against data centers, noting studies show AI adoption drives 25% job growth, data centers use 1/30th the water of golf courses, and occupy only 1/2000th of idle farmland.
- Manhattan's median asking rent surged 8% to $5,295, totaling over $63,000 annually, which St. Onge attributes to New York's policies making rental housing unprofitable and dangerous, reducing supply.
- Peter St. Onge notes apartment listings fell 16%, availability dropped 20%, and the vacancy rate is under 1.5% in Manhattan due to regulations, contrasting with a healthy market's typical 6% vacancy.
- St. Onge criticizes proposals to freeze rents on approximately one million New York apartments, arguing it would render them unprofitable, driving landlords away and creating a two-tier housing market.
- Peter St. Onge contends that young people gravitate towards socialism because existing 'half-socialist' policies have broken housing, healthcare, education, and wages, leading them to falsely believe more socialism is the cure.
- A project examining social science papers found 46% had incorrect math, with only half clearing the bar of computational reproducibility; 97% of an initial 3,900 papers contained no numerical data.
- Peter St. Onge highlights that economics papers performed best with 72% correct math, while education papers performed worst, with 97% of those attempting math getting it wrong, pointing to systemic academic flaws.
- St. Onge states that a Bayer and Amgen study 15 years ago found only 9% of 120 top journal cancer drug papers were reproducible, suggesting widespread issues in scientific research beyond mere math errors.
- The top 0.1% of US taxpayers, about 154,000 returns, pay 21% of federal income tax, averaging $3 million annually, which St. Onge notes is more than the bottom 80% combined.
- Peter St. Onge highlights that federal income taxes have become significantly more progressive; the top 1% paid 19% in 1980, but now contribute 40% of all federal income tax, a doubling of their share.