Trump economist Peter Navarro is a lead architect of the Trump tariff strategy, and so he took to social media in recent days to slam UP’s Steve Moore on our concerns about tariffs.

We have tried to be straight shooters on the economic impact of Trump’s tariff strategy. When appropriate, we’ve praised Trump’s use of tariff threats to get better trade deals for American farmers and manufacturers and for combatting unfair EU taxes imposed on our dominant tech companies.

But math is math. We described yesterday how coffee bean tariffs have raised the cost of a cup of joe in the morning. Some of the cost is borne by the Brazilian coffee growers and some is passed on to coffee drinkers. Similarly, tariffs on auto parts, aluminum and steel may save some manufacturing jobs, but they hurt more firms than they help and raise the price of buying a new Chevrolet.

Whether these costs exceed the benefits is for voters to decide.