Jeff Colgan at The Washington Post:

The Trump foreign economic plan most closely resembles President Herbert Hoover’s “mercantilist” approach, which tried to deal with the 1929 crash of the U.S. economy by protecting U.S. industry from foreign competition (and Mexican immigrants). The Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930 dramatically increased U.S. tariffs on imports, thereby hurting America’s trade partners. Those countries, especially the European ones, responded with trade tariffs of their own. The resulting trade war worsened economic problems, produced the Great Depression, and paved the way for Nazis in Germany. If Trump’s “close the borders” approach led to trade wars with China and others that were even half as nasty as those of the 1930s, the world would be immeasurably worse off.“

This was a very interesting read. Excellent analysis.