Polls show that Americans’ concerns about inflation are driving down perceptions of an otherwise strong economy, creating a major problem for President Joe Biden as he seeks re-election. To further complicate things for Biden, there’s little he can do as president to lower prices. That’s why he’s focused on things he can control, such as forgiving student debt, fighting junk fees and capping the cost of insulin for seniors on Medicare.
In a normal election year, Biden’s Republican challenger would have an easy task: constantly remind voters about inflation, blame the president’s economic policies for causing it and make some vague promises, if elected, to fix it. Donald Trump has gotten the first two parts of that formula down. But in his typical eat-the-chess-pieces approach to strategy, the presumptive GOP nominee has proposed a policy that would, if anything, make inflation worse.
For months, Trump has called for imposing a 10% across-the-board tariff on all imported goods. This approach would be far broader in scope than the strategy of his previous term. During those four years, Trump levied tariffs on everything from aluminum to washing machines, but did so in a far more scattershot fashion. This new strategy would be a shocking shift in U.S. policy and affect literally every corner of the economy.
Not that Trump is concerned: In an interview Monday with CNBC, he repeated his love of tariffs. “I’m a big believer in tariffs,” he said on “Squawk Box,” adding that they “give you power in dealing with other countries.”
In the past, Trump has promised a lot of things that he didn’t follow through on, but he’s unusually consistent on his love of tariffs. Voters should expect that he will reimpose them if elected, especially since Congress has largely ceded the handling of tariffs to the White House in recent decades.
It’s almost hard to wrap your head around how massive Trump’s proposal is.
It’s almost hard to wrap your head around…
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