Former Trump Campaign Adviser: Don’t Believe the Anti-Tariff Hysteria | Opinion

On April 2, 2025, President Donald J. Trump didn’t just unveil tariffs—he sparked a revolution.

In the Rose Garden, surrounded by proud union workers, the president proclaimed America’s “Liberation Day,” smashing the free-trade orthodoxy that had devastated our middle class and shipped our jobs overseas. These tariffs aren’t some meek adjustment; they’re a rebuke to the smug elites who’ve hawked “free trade” as our savior while raking in the profits. Liberation Day was the moment we stopped groveling and started winning—the day a nation gutted by betrayal entered a golden era of American greatness.

The old establishment is imploding, and it’s a joy to behold. In the week since the tariff announcement, we’ve seen countless end-of-days headlines about a “global trade war”; prophecies of ruin from ivory-tower economists; and Wall Street traders dumping stocks, only to buy them back and then dump them again. Even some spineless Republicans in Congress—who should be carrying President Trump’s flag—are trembling instead of cheering his fight for America’s soul. It’s a pitiful display from people who’ve sold our country down the river for years. They don’t get it, and they never will.

I’ve seen the rot firsthand. In 1993, I worked for Fortune 500 companies, pushing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the belief it would bring prosperity to America. In the years after, I watched factories die, towns crumble, and jobs vanish—proof that I was wrong about NAFTA, and that its loudest supporters cared more about their profits than about middle-class Americans. By May 2015, I was an early advocate for President Trump’s campaign. He saw the establishment’s con for what it was, and promised to fight for the forgotten.

On April 2, my rejection of establishment Washington came full circle as I stood in the Rose Garden, honored to witness history alongside union workers whose sweat built this nation. Their cheers weren’t just noise—they were a battle hymn for every family betrayed by the crooked system in Washington.

Since World War II, our trade policy has been a slow bleed-out. We played doormat, letting allies and foes alike loot our markets to keep Cold War pawns in line. That made sense once. Now? It’s just insanity, a gift to foreign fat cats while our heartland rots.

The truth cuts deep: global “free trade” is a heist. We slashed tariffs to scraps while our “partners” sneered and cheated. Canada imposes a 250 percent tariff on our dairy products if our farmers export more than a certain amount. China drowns our markets in cheap junk to bury our industries. Others hide their scams with quotas, red tape, or fat subsidies—tariffs by another name. For decades, we let them rob American workers blind while our leaders clapped like fools and called it progress.

President Trump gets it. His tariffs are a rallying cry for forgotten Americans—steelworkers, machinists, parents watching “Made in China” choke their kids’ futures. That cry says: “no more!” These tariffs are not reckless—they’re righteous. They’re not a retreat—they’re a charge to reclaim the industrial capacity that made America a titan; a gauntlet thrown at every nation that’s played us for suckers.

Foreign leaders will moan, mourning the loss of their cushy deals. Yet more than 70 of them have already come calling to the White House to make a deal, and President Trump will ensure those deals honor our workers. Indeed, the outpouring of negotiation offers from around the world was so gratifying to President Trump that he graciously put reciprocal tariffs (for everyone but China) on hold to allow those negotiations to take place in good faith.

The real meltdown is taking place here at home. Anti-Trump media, academics, and uniparty D.C. hacks are shrieking about the death of their sacred world order. Everyone who got rich while our middle class bled is now mourning their scam. Already, after just a week, dire predictions of a Black Monday-style market crash triggering another Great Depression have been exposed as hyperbole. After a few days of emotion-driven losses, the market skyrocketed after news that the president’s tariff strategy is bearing immediate fruit in the form of new trade negotiations.

This is history cracking open. President Trump’s tariffs bury the failures of offshoring and herald a new dawn for America’s workers. I’ve fought corrupt elites for years now, and I’ve never seen a moment this alive. Globalism failed us; President Trump is delivering long-term victory to all Americans. The suits can howl all they want. The rest of us—union strong and American proud—are ready for the golden era he’s forging, one tariff at a time.

Mark Serrano is a former senior adviser to Donald J. Trump for President and the founder of ProActive Strategies.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.