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Columns, Opinion Donald Trump thinks the world of tariffs. “Tariffs are the greatest thing ever invented,” Trump said in September at a town hall event in Michigan. On another occasion he said “tariff” is the most beautiful word in the English language. Hmm. And he really has had a love affair with tariffs. After all, they mark his entry into national politics. Back in the mid-1980s, his one big gripe was the trade deficit with Japan. Then China became the target, and while president, Trump kept raising tariffs with China in the belief China would bend a knee and surrender. It didn’t, and Biden has been stuck in a tariff war ever since.
Vice President Kamala Harris referred to her opponent’s tariff policy as a “Trump Tax.” She’s right: Several independent studies have found that the new tariffs, if implemented, would raise costs for the average middle-class family anywhere between $1,350 and $3,900 a year. The reason is simple: tariffs are usually passed on to the consumer by the importing company—unless, of course, the company wants to eat the tariff cost. Yet Trump and Vance, either out of pure ignorance or for political gain (or both), insisted that the exporting country pays. Referring to Harris’ claim, Trump said: “She is a liar. She makes up crap … I am going to put tariffs on other countries coming into our country, and that has nothing to do with taxes to us. That is a tax on another country.” In September, he repeated the claim during an interview with Fox News: “It’s not a tax on the middle class. It’s a tax on another country.”
