It hit me last week that almost no one in the administration truly believes in tariffs. Not, at any rate, as a serious policy. The only real enthusiast for them is President Donald Trump, and he plainly does not understand how they work. Everyone else goes along with him for reasons of cowardice or careerism, but we can see from his officials’ revealed preferences that they know it is nonsense.

Exhibit A: Tariffs on movies. Last week, the president issued one of his rambling declarations on Truth Social: “Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing ‘candy from a baby.’ California, with its weak and incompetent Governor, has been particularly hard hit! Therefore, in order to solve this long time, never ending problem, I will be imposing a 100 percent Tariff on any and all movies that are made outside of the United States.”