Protection or Free Trade

I’ve been rereading Henry George’s Protection or Free Trade for the first time in years, and am once again struck by admiration for the author’s incisive reasoning, elegant prose, and impressive organization, as well as by the relevance of these hundred and thirty year old arguments to the problems and controversies of today.

I wonder whether, if Donald Trump had somehow read this book, or more plausibly, had it read to him, before he came to be afflicted by senile dementia, in addition to the laziness, arrogance, and lack of intellectual curiosity which had long characterized him, he might have have been persuaded by its arguments, and ceased to be such a tariff man. Probably not.