as well as japan. he's threatening an additional $500 billion on tariffs on chinese imports. fallout from the growing trade war is expected to hit trump's base the hardest. the retaliatory products are mostly produced in the states that voted for donald trump. joining us now is one of the all time veterans in the world of financial journalism, cnbc contributor ron insana. ron, are we in a trade war and how big is it? >> we are in a trade war. it is not the biggest in history. you would have to go back to the 1930s to see that, where we had intense protectionism, the so-called smoot/hawley tariffs that deepened the great depression and led to competitive currency devaluations, what they called beggar your neighbor policies that made things much worse. we're at the beginning of a trade war. if the president were to impose that $500 billion on chinese goods, that's everything that china sends us, that would be the trade war to end all trade wars.