The clas­sic anti-​war song of the 1960s “War” per­formed by Edwin Starr for Motown records was intended as a protest against mil­i­tary con­flict dur­ing the war in Viet­nam. The singer’s bold and defin­i­tive con­clu­sion that war is good for “absolutely noth­ing” is equally applic­a­ble to the mis­guided pol­icy of trade wars. Yet here we are in the early days of this exact pol­icy blun­der, which has been con­demned as short­sighted and destruc­tive by vir­tu­ally every econ­o­mist, polit­i­cal sci­en­tist, busi­ness leader, and elected offi­cial — save one: Pres­i­dent Trump.