The gusto with which President Trump imposes tariffs on other countries makes me wonder if the notion of “retaliation” has been fully discussed in the White House. If so, one wonders why the President still raises tariffs expecting other countries to roll over. (As Einstein said, “insanity is to conduct the same experiment over and over again and expect different outcomes”)

Most recently, President Trump imposed tariffs on the shaky economy of Turkey. Not because it steals intellectual property of US firms (as was Trumps rational for Chinese tariffs), and not because it was in the interest of national security (as Trumps rational for Mexico, Canada, EU tariffs). This time it was to punish the shaky Turkish government (featuring a coup attempt two years ago) for having imprisoned a US citizen. In the past, governments used diplomacy in these cases, but President Trump seems to prefer tariffs.

So here we have a developing country, not even a EU member, not even a country with a timeline for EU accession, and President Trump imposes a tariff. Did Turkey retaliate? You bet.