Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday defended his pledge to impose stiff tariffs on imports, dismissing some economists’ concerns that his vision would plunge the nation into a trade war with China, threaten millions of American jobs, force consumers to pay more and worsen inflation.
During an appearance at the Economic Club of Chicago, Mr. Trump shrugged off studies that found his tax and spending plan would add billions to the national debt and that the revenue raised through his proposed tariffs would be a drop in the bucket by comparison — not coming close to covering the costs of his policy plans or offsetting annual federal deficits.
“It must be hard for you to spend 25 years about tariffs as negative and then have somebody explain to you that you are totally wrong,” Mr. Trump said after the moderator, John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, challenged his tariff plan.
“You have been wrong all your life on this stuff,” Mr. Trump said later.
Mr. Trump has morphed the GOP into a home for more blue-collar Americans by ditching the party’s traditional free-trade orthodoxy for a populist approach to tariffs that has resonated with Americans pessimistic about the economy. He calls one of his pitches reciprocal trade, where if countries levy big taxes on American goods, the U.S. retaliates in kind: “You screw us, we screw you,” he has said at rallies.
That has helped bolster his support, according to polls that show he is more trusted than Vice President Kamala Harris to strengthen the economy, which is voters’ top issue.
Ms. Harris points to 3% economic growth, 4% unemployment and the stock market hitting record highs. Yet many voters are reeling from inflation and high interest rates, which have forced people to pay more for groceries, gas and home mortgages and take on more personal debt.
Meanwhile, some economists and budget hawks warn that Mr. Trump’s tax plans and proposed tariffs would be bad news for the nation.
At the Chicago forum, Mr. Micklethwait cited studies from bipartisan groups that showed Mr. Trump’s strategy would add $7.5 trillion to the nation’s debt — far more than Ms. Harris’ plan — and that his tariffs would raise $200 billion.
Other studies have shown Mr. Trump’s plan to raise tariffs, launch deportation of what he says are 21 million illegal immigrants, and increase the president’s influence over the Federal Reserve would trigger an inflation spike.
The former president reminded the audience that in his first term tariffs brought in billions of dollars without igniting inflation. He reiterated his belief that “tariff” is the “world’s most beautiful word in the dictionary” and said his plan would bring “thousands of companies” into the U.S.
“The higher the tariff, the more likely it is that the company will come into the United States and build a factory in the United States — so it doesn’t have to pay the tariffs,” he said.
Mr. Trump said American consumers would be the “biggest beneficiaries” of his tariffs and dismissed the idea that the tariffs amount to a national sales tax on Americans.
For businesses that move here and hire American workers, Mr. Trump has vowed to provide them with a lower corporate tax rate.
Brian Riedl, an economic expert at the conservative Manhattan Institute, is hardly on board the Trump plan, telling The Washington Times there’s a “broad and deep economic consensus against the economic tenets of Trumpism.”
He added, “The two main tenets of Trump’s economic outlook are first to essentially build an economic wall around America with steep tariffs and deportations and second to essentially use the levers of government for significant new special interest carves-outs to buy off different constituencies and allies. That is going to raise prices, hurt consumers and kill jobs.”
At the same time, Mr. Reidel said the Biden-Harris economic record “isn’t very good.”
“Inflation has been worsened by President Biden’s policies, which, in turn, drove up interest rates,” he said. “So I think if you’re looking at the politics of the economy, the government clearly hasn’t done a very good job, but in some areas, the economy has thrived more despite Washington’s mismanagement.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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