'Trade wars. Huh. What are they good for? Absolutely NUTHIN'!'

The Trump administration has announced $200 billion in new tariffs on Chinese goods.

The Chinese- terming the action "unacceptable" and calling the U.S. policy "bullying-" are threatening to respond in kind.

Despite the president's historically illiterate remark on Twitter that "trade wars are easy to win," nobody generally wins them. All parties are hurt economically because the balance of trade is worsened by them rather than improved. It was one thing when Mr. Trump was simply trying to take credit for the Obama economic recovery and the continued progress of an economy which was actually growing at a faster rate, with unemployment decreasing at a faster rate, on the day Mr. Obama left office than it is today. But as I and many others feared would happen during the campaign, when Mr. Trump was hinting at a protectionist trade policy, he has set us on a road that almost inevitably will take us back into recession.

Events continue to unfold as I feared they would, and if they continue on this course they will plunge us into another recession. After the recession of 2008 devastated our economy on a Republican president's watch, it's looking more and more like what I feared would result from Mr. Trump's election will take place. By 2020, the Republicans may no longer be a viable political party- and, as I feared would be the case back in 2016, the price of Donald Trump's election will turn out to be that the ideology of Hillary Clinton will no longer have any practical opposition and will run rampant with neither let nor hindrance for the foreseeable future.

Somebody grab a dictionary and look up "Pyrrhic victory."