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Former U.S. President Donald Trump at Thursday’s televised debate said that his plan for blanket tariffs would not drive consumer prices higher, while incumbent leader Joe Biden claimed that the proposal could cost the average American $2.5K or more.
The imposition of tariffs by Trump, especially on Chinese goods, was one of the biggest policies of his administration when he served as the 45th President from 2017 to 2021. He has promised more tariffs if reelected – a 60% levy against Chinese goods and 10% against products from the rest of the world.
“(The 10% tarfiff is) not going to drive (consumer prices) higher, it’s just going to cause countries that have been ripping us off for years, like China, and many others, in all fairness to China. It’s going to just force them to pay us a lot of money, reduce our deficit tremendously, and give us a lot of power for other things,” Trump said at the debate hosted by CNN and moderated by anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
“These tariffs, these 10% tariffs on everything coming into the country. Know what the economists say? That’s going to cost the average American $2.5K a year or more because they’re going to have to pay the difference,” Biden shot back.
Biden’s figure appears to moderately overstated. A research analysis three days ago by the right-leaning American Action Forum estimated that the proposed 10% tariff would result in average estimated additional costs per U.S. household of between $1.7K and $2.35K annually.
Another analysis in May by the Peterson Institute for International Economics estimated that the tariffs would cost a typical U.S. household in the middle of the income distribution about $1.7K in increased taxes each year.
Trump at the debate also pointed out that Biden did not strike down any of the tariffs the former U.S. leader had imposed upon China.
“(Biden) gets paid by China. He’s a Manchurian candidate. He gets money from China. So I think he’s afraid to deal with them or something. But, do you notice, he never took out my tariffs because we bring in so much money with the tariffs that I imposed on China. He never took them away, can’t because it’s too much money,” Trump said.
“China is going to own us if you keep allowing them to do what they’re doing to us as a country. They are killing us as a country, Joe, and you can’t let that happen,” he added.
In fact, not only has the Biden administration kept Trump’s tariffs in place, it has increased others on Chinese goods across sectors such as steel and aluminum, semiconductors and electric vehicles that targeted $18B of imports from the Asian nation.
Earlier, a new Syracuse University/Ipsos American Identity poll found that three in five Americans were likely to watch a Biden-Trump debate. Also, the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted June 21-23 found that 22% of respondents believe the economy, unemployment, and jobs are the most important problems facing the U.S. today.
For investors looking to track the elections through market instruments, here are some politically driven Republican and Democrat exchange-traded funds:
- God Bless America ETF (YALL)
- American Conservative Values ETF (ACVF)
- Point Bridge America First ETF (MAGA)
- Democratic Large Cap Core ETF (DEMZ)
- Unusual Whales Subversive Democratic ETF (NANC)
- Unusual Whales Subversive Republican ETF (KRUZ)
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