International Man: Trump is pitching a "tariff dividend" that would take revenue from new import tariffs and recycle it into $2,000 checks for Americans—framed not as welfare, but as a patriotic return on America's trade strength.

What do you make of this?

Doug Casey: Frankly, it's ridiculous. Whenever Trump talks, it's clear that he knows nothing about either economics or history. Of course, knowledge isn't entirely necessary to steer the Ship of State. It's possible to get by with only luck, bluster, and coercion—but the results tend to be bad. Trump doesn't have any consistent thinking or philosophy, either; it's all seat-of-the-pants feelings.

That's a characteristic of populists. They try to get ahead of popular whims, and they'll say or do almost anything that they think the mob wants to hear.

So far, the big reason for Trump's popularity is that he's a cultural conservative. Let's count ourselves lucky in that regard. He doesn't want to overturn the basis of America itself, as many of the Democrats clearly want to do.