Irish Examiner view: Bills set to arrive for ‘liberation’

The levies which will be proposed this week have their roots in the America First philosophies which emerged more than a century ago

US president Donald Trump has regularly used the America First slogan during his political career, formally linking it to trade in a White House statement on January 20. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

We should be grateful to actors Jeff Goldblum, Will Smith, and film director Roland Emmerich for cornering the Independence Day franchise with their 1996 movie. It’s forced Donald Trump and his tariff-raising advisers to badge their efforts, due to be announced tomorrow and start on Wednesday, as “Liberation Day.”

Apart from the weaker and more confusing marketing message the phrase conveys, it may force citizens to question what precisely they are being liberated from. Certainly, they will be freer to spend more of their money on goods made overseas, if they can afford it.