The Trump administration’s latest justification for tariffs is even less believable than its previous ones.

President Donald Trump has previously said, among other things, that the tariffs would stem the tide of fentanyl entering the United States and help boost American manufacturing — two things that experts rightly warned would not occur as a result of the president’s destructive and delusional economic agenda.

Aside from soaring prices for Americans, what the tariffs did seem to do was net the president lavish gifts from those seeking tariff relief.

After the Supreme Court ruled that Trump doesn’t have the tariff authority he claimed, the president is trying to impose tariffs through other means. The latest example is his administration’s claim that tariffs are needed to thwart the scourge of “forced labor” around the world.

On Tuesday, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who at times has seemed completely out of the loop on Trump’s tariff policy, announced proposed tariffs against dozens of countries while accusing the nations of failing to crack down on forced labor. Greer said the plan is meant to protect American workers from being “forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field.”

Because if there’s one thing we know about Trump, it’s his commitment to fair business practices, amirite?

Some may find it hard to believe that an administration that has yet to release the entire Epstein files, and one that has touted the “legendary” legacy of a brutal Louisiana prison with ties to slavery, is truly concerned about ending the scourges of human trafficking and forced labor — for economic, moral or any other reasons.

What’s more, this Trump administration has gutted many of the federal programs designed to fight forced labor around the world. Last year, The Guardian reported that the Trump administration has “aggressively rolled back efforts across the federal government to combat human trafficking.”

According to the report:

The sweeping retreat threatens to negate decades of progress in the drive to prevent sexual slavery, forced labor and child sexual exploitation, according to legal experts, former government officials and anti-trafficking advocates. They say the administration’s moves are impeding efforts to prosecute perpetrators and protect survivors in the United States and around the world. 

It’s hard to square an administration brazenly undermining the fight against forced labor, only to then portray itself as an enemy of forced labor. It’s much easier, I’d argue, to believe that the president and his administration are looking for some way — any way — to revive one of the most unpopular policies of his second term.