Time and time again over the past four months, reality has failed to match Trump’s rhetoric

“Tariffs are easy,” Donald Trump claimed in March. For his administration, and the world, they have proven anything but. Now an obscure New York court has blocked his signature trade policy, setting up a battle that looks sure to end up in the supreme court.

The plan was simple. For decades, Trump has made the case for tariffs. Now, in his second term, he would dramatically hike them on the world; raise trillions of dollars for the federal government; cut taxes for Americans; and lure manufacturers to the country’s industrial heartlands, creating millions of jobs.

But this drastic bid to overhaul the global economy has proved far more complicated.Time and again over the past four months, reality failed to match the rhetoric. Threats were followed by delays. Exemptions were carved out of supposedly universal tariff waves. Even when they were imposed, it was days, if not hours, before pauses were announced.