This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.

I'm your host, Greg Sargent.

President Donald Trump's trade war with China is coming under increasing media scrutiny,

and the results are brutal.

A new editorial from the Wall Street Journal savagely notes that Trump's recent climb down with China was a surrender that has only produced more economic uncertainty.

A long New York Times piece details that Trump's aggression has not produced any major concessions from China.

We think this is going to get worse, and here's why. In addition to being terrible

policy, the tariffs are a massive abuse of power, and once the lawsuits against them get going,

this, too, will be fully aired out for the public. Ilya Soman, a law professor at George

Mason University, is helping to spear

had one of the most important lawsuits against these tariffs, a suit brought by five businesses.

So we invited Ilya on the show to talk about where this is all going.

Ilya, thanks for coming on.

Thank you very much for having me.

So this new Wall Street Journal editorial is very harsh.

It notes that Trump just reduced his tariffs on China to 30% as part of this pause. Critically, though, the journal describes this as a major retreat and a surrender and a repudiation of Trump's underlying policy ideas here. I take it you agree with all that, I'll you?

To a large extent,

though I would note it's not a complete repudiation of his underlying policy ideas given there's still

a 30% tariff on China, which is still much higher than before he started this trade war. So it's in

accordance with his philosophy. The tariffs are somehow good for us. But in

reality, they cause enormous harm. So it would be better if you really did just repudiate that

philosophy because it's a bad one. Indeed, it is. But this is a retreat and a surrender. Can you

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