President Trump plans to impose sweeping reciprocal tariffs on April 2. The move aims to level the playing field between American free enterprise and foreign state-backed competitors.

“April 2 is going to be Liberation Day for America,” the president said. One can only hope he means it literally.

America is buying its future instead of building it.

Liberation Day — a bold declaration of America’s economic sovereignty — deserves annual recognition alongside Independence Day. Here’s why.

Economics and politics — money and power — remain inseparable. Without economic independence, such as the ability to produce steel, machinery, and semiconductors domestically, political independence cannot survive.

America’s founders learned that lesson the hard way during the Revolutionary War. Somewhere along the way, the country forgot it.

Over the past five decades, the United States has offshored trillions of dollars in economic production — everything from basic necessities to advanced technologies — to foreign competitors. As a result, America now relies heavily on Chinese imports to sustain its wealth and security.

This dependence isn’t just shortsighted; it’s suicidal.

President Trump’s proposed tariffs offer what may be the last, best opportunity to free the U.S. economy from the grip of globalist trade policies that have hollowed out domestic industry.

In Rushmore’s shadow

The greatest threat to the American Revolution wasn’t the disciplined redcoats or ruthless Hessians. It was the colonies’ inability to produce enough textiles, firearms, or gunpowder to sustain the war effort. Before the Revolution, Britain had supplied many of these goods — and suddenly cut them off.

Victory became possible only after European powers, especially France and the Netherlands, began supplying the Continental Army. The French alone provided more than 80,000 muskets. Without that aid, the war could not have been fought, let alone won.

President George Washington understood the hard lesson: Political independence depends on economic independence. He wrote:

A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies …

That’s why his first major legislative act as president was the Tariff Act of 1789, which placed taxes on imported manufactured goods. The goal was clear — encourage domestic industry and reduce reliance on foreign suppliers.

Critics argue that these tariffs may have reduced economic “efficiency,” but they made the United States far more resilient — both politically and militarily. Opponents of tariffs often forget that America is not an economic work camp. It is a nation with values that go beyond profit margins.

Thomas Jefferson was initially critical of Washington’s plan, but the War of 1812 brought him on board. America and the British Empire again found themselves at war, but this time America could supply many of its own firearms and textiles — despite Britain’s blockade. In a letter from 1816 Jefferson admitted:

Experience has taught me that manufactures are now as necessary to our independence as to our comfort: and if those who quote me as of a different opinion will keep pace with me in purchasing nothing foreign where an equivalent of domestic fabric can be obtained, without regard to difference of price, [we would be well off] ...

Throughout the 19th century, American leaders relied on tariffs to build a domestic industrial base from the ground up. The Tariff Act of 1816 unified what had been a patchwork of inconsistent tax rates and doubled average tariffs across the board.

High tariffs remained a central part of U.S. economic policy until the 1970s, when protectionist barriers began to fall.

Under this “American system” of tariffs — supported by many of the Founding Fathers and every president carved into Mount Rushmore — the United States transitioned from a primarily agricultural colony into an industrial powerhouse.

By 1870, the U.S. had become the world’s second-largest industrial power, behind only Great Britain. By the 1880s, it produced a quarter of the world’s industrial output, a share that continued to grow. For the next 150 years, the United States led the world in productivity.

That changed in 2010, when China overtook the United States. Today, America’s share of global industrial output has fallen to about 17% — roughly half of what it was during the country’s industrial peak.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust

In the 1970s, the United States abandoned its long-standing protectionist policies and embraced economic globalism — including international “free” trade and loose monetary policy. This shift led to widespread offshoring of factories, the decline of American industry, and growing economic insecurity for the American people. As a result, the country has become increasingly dependent on foreign suppliers, particularly China, for essential goods.

This economic transformation has pushed the United States into a more “colonial” pattern of trade. Since moving away from tariffs, the structure of America’s economy has begun to resemble that of the 13 colonies before the Revolutionary War. Back then, Britain locked the colonies into a mercantilist relationship, forcing them to import high-value manufactured goods such as firearms while exporting low-value agricultural products like tobacco.

Great Britain’s mercantile policy aimed to achieve three objectives. First, it sought to keep the American colonies economically dependent on Britain. Second, it aimed to expand the market for British manufactured goods, boosting the size of British industry. Third, it concentrated economic gains in Britain by focusing on value-added production — effectively allowing Britain to profit from the American market.

This strategy proved successful. By the 1770s, nearly one in five British men worked in manufacturing, supported largely by colonial demand. Between 1700 and 1773, demand from the colonies accounted for 72% of the growth in British manufacturing. During that time, manufactured goods grew from 4% to 27.4% of Britain’s total exports. Britain’s trade surplus with the colonies also surged, rising from £67,000 between 1721 and 1730 to £739,000 between 1761 and 1770 — more than an elevenfold increase in just a few decades.

Naturally, the colonies saw the opposite outcome. Trade with Great Britain functioned as a parasitic relationship, impoverishing and agitating the colonies until they ultimately revolted.

Today, history is repeating itself. The United States has once again fallen into a mercantile trap — this time with China.

The data tells the story. The first two visualizations below compare U.S. imports from China in 2001 and 2021. Over those two decades, the share of technologically advanced goods imported from China rose significantly. For example, computers accounted for just 6.02% of imports from China in 2001; by 2021, that number had climbed to 10.8%. At the same time, imports of lower-value goods, such as footwear and toys, declined as a share of the total.

The next two visualizations show a stark contrast in America’s export profile to China.

In 2001, the United States exported a wide range of high-value, technologically advanced products. Half of total exports to China consisted of advanced manufacturing and technology, supporting cutting-edge industries and millions of well-paying American jobs.

By 2021, that picture had changed dramatically. The bulk of America’s exports now consist of raw materials — soybeans, corn, and petroleum — rather than high-tech goods like computers or aircraft. This shift makes the U.S. export profile resemble that of a developing country, not the world’s leading economic power.

It may seem obvious, but it bears repeating: America is buying its future instead of building it. In the process, the nation is sacrificing its industrial strength and political independence to the ideals of economic globalism.

President Trump's proposed tariffs offer a final opportunity to reverse the decline and restore the American dream. Without them, the United States may have to brace for China’s rise — and the West’s fall.