@shaneball.bsky.social and @kclausing.bsky.social argue that Trump's replacement tariffs are even more likely to promote the pay to play system that disadvantages small businesses like ours. It's time for Congress to take its Constitutional authority back.

Corruption and influence-peddling have long been major problems with tariffs, and they may also help explain why Trump so loves them: gathering in his hands total ongoing discretion over every tariff gives pretty much every important business and nation a strong ongoing reason to court his favor.

"Until Congress reasserts its constitutional authority over tariffs and other policy matters, the institutional decline and corruption enabled by Mr. Trump’s agenda will continue," write Shane Ball and Kimberly Clausing.

Today w/ @shaneball.bsky.social in @nytimes.com. I used to think the Trump tariffs were about not understanding economics. Then that they were about disguising a shift in tax burdens. Those may both be true; yet the dominant aim may well be power/corruption. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/o...