Trump's tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods have risen from 10 to 25 percent, the stock market is tumbling, and Trump says he's in "no rush" to cancel his trade apocalypse.
Although this is not how anything works, Trump claims the tariffs will bring "wealth" into the country.
In a series of morning tweets, Trump defended the tariff hike and said he was in “absolutely no rush” to finalize a deal, adding that the U.S. economy would gain more from the levies than any agreement.
“Tariffs will bring in FAR MORE wealth to our country than even a phenomenal deal of the traditional kind,” Trump said in one of the tweets.
Despite Trump’s insistence that China will absorb the cost of the tariffs, U.S. businesses will pay them and likely pass them on to consumers. Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.
You, the American consumer reading this, will pay for Trump's tariffs.
Chinese companies will not pay for it; importers will. American importers will pay for the tariffs and the cost will be passed down to manufacturers, construction companies, and retail chains and they will pass the cost down to the base consumer. At the end of the day, you will pay for it.
If Trump sincerely believes that tariffs are better than "even a phenomenal deal," as he says, we may not see the end of this anytime soon if ever.
If we're lucky, an extended streak of market losses will convince Trump to pull the economy back from the cliff, but I don't think anyone should count on that. Trump's whims are greater than any piece of empirical evidence that says he's wrong.