I have many conservative friends who live in Washington, D.C., some of whom worked in the Reagan administration.  They revere Ronald Reagan, and who on our side doesn’t?  Reagan ended the cold war, restored patriotism in America, and presided over “Morning in America.”

But not so fast.  Some don’t remember that Reagan’s first two years saw severe economic pain, as Reagan and his Federal Reserve head, Paul Volcker, applied some serious tough love to help the country recover from the disastrous Jimmy Carter era of stagflation and other economic ills.

Reagan and Volcker embarked on a plan to rein in Carter-era inflation.  The 1981–1982 recession, one of the most severe post–World War II, stemmed from the combination of a tight monetary policy implemented by the Federal Reserve to combat inflation and the aftereffects of the 1979 energy crisis.  The federal funds rate, a key interest rate, reached a peak of 20% in June 1981.  This high–interest rate environment led to a decline in business investment and consumer spending, contributing to the economic downturn.  The unemployment rate peaked at 10.8% in December 1982, the highest level since the Great Depression.

The good news is that three years after Reagan’s election, the country began to turn around, leading to his historic re-election and one of the greatest growth periods in American history.

Today, after less than two months in office, Trump is being reviled by many so-called conservatives for a tariff plan that is causing significant disruption in the stock market.  Are this tariff plan and its somewhat capricious application going to usher in a wonderful new age of economic revitalization for the country?  I don’t know, and I don’t believe that anyone really knows.  The point here is to let the man have a bit of leeway to work his plan.  Goodness knows this country needs help after the treasonous Biden term.  And there is no doubt that America has been taken advantage of for years on many levels, economically and militarily.

Is Trump’s tariff plan the tough love America and the West needs to get back to a thriving, mutually beneficial relationship, or is it the outdated fever dream of an egotistical leader?  Again, I don’t know, but what I do know is that I am buying American stocks now, at what could be a bottom, and I’m betting my money on a grand golden age for our country.

Trump is not infallible, but he has been proven right way more that he has been wrong.  Give the man a year or two rather than a month or two before declaring that the sky has fallen.  

Jeffrey Wright is a Minneapolis-based investment banker, entrepreneur, and concerned citizen.