The US was built on free trade. This is untrue. Look at US history as it was becoming a superpower before WW2. From 1871 to 1913, “the average U.S. tariff on

The US was built on free trade. This is untrue. Look at US history as it was becoming a superpower before WW2. From 1871 to 1913, “the average U.S. tariff on dutiable imports never fell below 38 percent [and] gross national product (GNP) grew 4.3 percent annually, twice the pace in free trade Britain and well above the U.S. average in the 20th century,” notes Alfred Eckes Jr., chairman of the U.S. International Trade Commission under President Reagan.