Of all the ideas associated with the incoming president’s economic policy, the oddest is that his hostility to free trade is somehow driven by concern for the little guy. In fact, unrestricted commerce always raises living standards for the masses, while tariffs and quotas take from the many to give to the few.

Consider, to pluck an example more or less at random, the sugar lobby. At every election, sugar producers donate millions of dollars to candidates from both parties, and spend millions more in direct lobbying. In consequence, Congress maintains import restrictions which result in domestic sugar being roughly twice as expensive as sugar sold abroad. This is, obviously, good news for some American sugarcane planters, notably the largest and most politically active: Around 40 percent of the benefit goes to 1 percent of the growers.