In Speech to Congress, Trump Promises More Tariff Madness
The tariffs Trump has already imposed on Canada, Mexico, and China will cost an estimated $142 billion this year—and he says more are on the way.
In the hours after President Donald Trump decided to slap new tariffs on all imports from Canada and Mexico, the stock market slumped and economists warned of rising prices and declining economic growth.
On Tuesday night, in an address to a joint session of Congress, Trump promised that the chaos would continue—with more tariffs on more imports.
"Whatever they tariff us, we tariff them. Whatever they tax us, we tax them. If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market," Trump said, referring to his ongoing plan to impose so-called "reciprocal tariffs" on nearly all imports.
"We will take in trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before," the president promised.
Depending on the contours of those tariff proposals—which the White House says will be prepared by early April—the tariffs could generate substantial revenue for the Treasury. But those funds will be coming out of the wallets of American businesses and consumers, who will bear the brunt of the higher costs created by those tariffs.
"We have been ripped off for decades by almost every country on Earth and we will not let that happen any longer," Trump promised.
To fix that, Trump is promising to make America less prosperous.
The tariffs Trump has already imposed on Canada, Mexico, and China will increase federal tax revenue by an estimated $142 billion this year, according to an estimate from the Tax Foundation. That's an average tax increase of more than $1,000 per American household if the tariffs remain in place for a full year. An estimate by the Peterson Institute for International Economics pegs the cost to American households at $1,200 annually.
Trump's plan for reciprocal tariffs would cause more economic pain and could be the biggest tax increase since World War II.
It's not news that Trump seems to misunderstand how tariffs work. But unlike during his first term in office, Trump is following through on those threats in destructive ways—and without any clear indications or metrics about what he's hoping to accomplish. In his speech on Tuesday night, Trump made a vague promise about how tariffs would make the auto industry "boom" but failed to indicate what benefits Americans can expect to receive from these costly new taxes.
In reality, the auto industry figures to be among the hardest hit by the new tariffs, which will disrupt the robust supply chains crisscrossing North America.
Then again, maybe that's because the whole thing is just for show—again.
"I think he's going to work something out with [Canada and Mexico]," Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Fox Business on Tuesday. "It's not going to be a pause, none of that pause stuff, but I think he's going to figure out, you do more, and I'll meet you in the middle some way, and we're going to probably be announcing that tomorrow."
What will happen next with Trump's tariff plans? Good luck figuring that out.
