Donald Trump in Reading, Pennsylvania on October 09, 2024
(Chip Somodevilla/Shutterstock.com)
April 02, 2025
ALTERNET
President Donald Trump is acknowledging that his steep new tariffs will bring some economic pain in the United States, but he insists that short-term discomfort will be followed by a period of major prosperity and a renaissance in U.S. manufacturing.
Trump is also claiming that money from tariffs will replace any federal revenue lost because of tax cuts for the United States' wealthiest Americans. And he is describing Wednesday, April 2 — the day his new tariffs are scheduled to take effect — as "Liberation Day."
But The New Republic's Timonthy Noah, in a biting article published on April 2, lays out some major flaws in Trump's arguments on tariffs and taxes.
READ MORE: Chances of a recession hiked to 35 percent as Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs loom
"I'm starting to believe April 2 really will be Liberation Day," Noah argues. "But instead of liberating us from foreign imports, it will liberate us from any lingering illusion that Trump's tariffs are about anything more than eliminating the progressive income tax."
The math in Trump's claims, according to Noah, doesn't add up.
"News accounts about President Donald Trump's tariffs routinely mention that raising revenue is one of Trump's stated goals," Noah explains. "But they hurry quickly past this because it's totally idiotic to think tariffs could ever replace the income tax, even partially, as a meaningful source of federal revenue. And they’re right: This idea is really, really stupid!"
Noah adds, "Where the press goes wrong is in not plumbing the depths of Trump's commitment to this stupid idea. How stupid? Well, the Internal Revenue Service last year collected $2.96 trillion from income taxes on individual and corporate income, and the United States imported $3.3 trillion in foreign goods. You'll note these numbers are pretty close. To replace all income-tax revenue, you'd have to impose a tariff of nearly 100 percent on all foreign imports. Not gonna happen!"
Timothy Noah's full article for The New Republic is available at this link.
President Donald Trump is acknowledging that his steep new tariffs will bring some economic pain in the United States, but he insists that short-term discomfort will be followed by a period of major prosperity and a renaissance in U.S. manufacturing.
Trump is also claiming that money from tariffs will replace any federal revenue lost because of tax cuts for the United States' wealthiest Americans. And he is describing Wednesday, April 2 — the day his new tariffs are scheduled to take effect — as "Liberation Day."
But The New Republic's Timonthy Noah, in a biting article published on April 2, lays out some major flaws in Trump's arguments on tariffs and taxes.
READ MORE: Chances of a recession hiked to 35 percent as Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs loom
"I'm starting to believe April 2 really will be Liberation Day," Noah argues. "But instead of liberating us from foreign imports, it will liberate us from any lingering illusion that Trump's tariffs are about anything more than eliminating the progressive income tax."
The math in Trump's claims, according to Noah, doesn't add up.
"News accounts about President Donald Trump's tariffs routinely mention that raising revenue is one of Trump's stated goals," Noah explains. "But they hurry quickly past this because it's totally idiotic to think tariffs could ever replace the income tax, even partially, as a meaningful source of federal revenue. And they’re right: This idea is really, really stupid!"
Noah adds, "Where the press goes wrong is in not plumbing the depths of Trump's commitment to this stupid idea. How stupid? Well, the Internal Revenue Service last year collected $2.96 trillion from income taxes on individual and corporate income, and the United States imported $3.3 trillion in foreign goods. You'll note these numbers are pretty close. To replace all income-tax revenue, you'd have to impose a tariff of nearly 100 percent on all foreign imports. Not gonna happen!"
Timothy Noah's full article for The New Republic is available at this link.
'A large revenue heist': WSJ bashes Trump’s 'ideological fixation on tariffs'
Donald Trump speaks at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., December 22, 2024. REUTERS/Cheney Orr/File Photo
Calling out the Trump administration over its attempts to present the planned tariff increase as “tax cuts,” the Wall Street Journal termed these tariffs “a large revenue heist.”
“In the real economic world, a tariff is a tax,” the newspaper wrote in its Tuesday editorial.
The editorial was a response to President Donald Trump’s chief trade adviser Peter Navarro who on Sunday told Fox News tariffs will raise about $600 billion a year and “about $6 trillion over a 10-year period” but that this is a tax cut.
Navarro called Trump's tariffs proposal "the biggest tax cut in American history for the middle class, for the blue collar.”
In a sharp rebuke to Navarro’s claims, the WSJ noted the $600 billion figure “would be one of the largest in U.S. history.”
“By any definition that is a tax increase,” the newspaper said.
“The President’s ideological fixation on tariffs is crowding out rational judgments about the consequences. Americans are being told to accept the pain of higher prices, a slower economy, and shrinking 401(k) balances in the name of Mr. Trump’s project to transform the American economy into what he imagines it was like in the McKinley era of the 1890s,” it added.
The president is set to introduce a series of tariffs on Wednesday on imports that he claims will free the United States from dependence on foreign products, frequently referring to April 2 as "Liberation Day.” But there are still many uncertainties regarding the implementation of Trump’s tariffs.
Trump indicated these tariffs will be "reciprocal," meaning they will match the duties imposed by other countries on American goods.
On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump is expected to reveal his plans for reciprocal tariffs affecting nearly all U.S. trading partners on Wednesday. The specifics, however, will be determined by the president himself, per Leavitt.
Trump is radically altering the long-established rules of global trade. The "reciprocal" tariffs he is anticipated to announce on Wednesday could disrupt international businesses and create tension with both America's allies and rivals.
Since the 1960s, tariffs, or import taxes, have been a result of negotiations among numerous nations. Trump is aiming to take control of this process.
Trump argues that unfair competition from abroad has harmed American manufacturers and ravaged factory towns in the Midwest. In his first term, he imposed tariffs on foreign steel, aluminum, washing machines, solar panels and nearly all imports from China.
But critics say such tariffs hurt the American economy instead of helping it.
Donald Trump speaks at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., December 22, 2024. REUTERS/Cheney Orr/File Photo
April 01, 2025
ALTERNET
Calling out the Trump administration over its attempts to present the planned tariff increase as “tax cuts,” the Wall Street Journal termed these tariffs “a large revenue heist.”
“In the real economic world, a tariff is a tax,” the newspaper wrote in its Tuesday editorial.
The editorial was a response to President Donald Trump’s chief trade adviser Peter Navarro who on Sunday told Fox News tariffs will raise about $600 billion a year and “about $6 trillion over a 10-year period” but that this is a tax cut.
Navarro called Trump's tariffs proposal "the biggest tax cut in American history for the middle class, for the blue collar.”
In a sharp rebuke to Navarro’s claims, the WSJ noted the $600 billion figure “would be one of the largest in U.S. history.”
“By any definition that is a tax increase,” the newspaper said.
“The President’s ideological fixation on tariffs is crowding out rational judgments about the consequences. Americans are being told to accept the pain of higher prices, a slower economy, and shrinking 401(k) balances in the name of Mr. Trump’s project to transform the American economy into what he imagines it was like in the McKinley era of the 1890s,” it added.
The president is set to introduce a series of tariffs on Wednesday on imports that he claims will free the United States from dependence on foreign products, frequently referring to April 2 as "Liberation Day.” But there are still many uncertainties regarding the implementation of Trump’s tariffs.
Trump indicated these tariffs will be "reciprocal," meaning they will match the duties imposed by other countries on American goods.
On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump is expected to reveal his plans for reciprocal tariffs affecting nearly all U.S. trading partners on Wednesday. The specifics, however, will be determined by the president himself, per Leavitt.
Trump is radically altering the long-established rules of global trade. The "reciprocal" tariffs he is anticipated to announce on Wednesday could disrupt international businesses and create tension with both America's allies and rivals.
Since the 1960s, tariffs, or import taxes, have been a result of negotiations among numerous nations. Trump is aiming to take control of this process.
Trump argues that unfair competition from abroad has harmed American manufacturers and ravaged factory towns in the Midwest. In his first term, he imposed tariffs on foreign steel, aluminum, washing machines, solar panels and nearly all imports from China.
But critics say such tariffs hurt the American economy instead of helping it.
‘Tariff man’: Trump’s long history with trade wars
By AFP
March 31, 2025
Donald Trump has insisted on the benefits of tariffs for decades - Copyright AFP ROBERTO SCHMIDT
Donald Trump loves few things more than talking about his affinity for tariffs, but it’s nothing new: he’s been saying the same thing for decades.
“To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff,'” Trump repeatedly said on the campaign trail for the 2024 election.
He has since joked that it is now his fourth favorite word, after love, God and family — but his commitment to them remains as strong as ever.
The 78-year-old Republican has promised a “Liberation Day” for America on Wednesday when he announces sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs targeting any country that has import levies against US goods.
The sudden trade war has sent leading world economies scrambling — yet anyone surprised by the onslaught has not been listening to Trump himself.
Other policies have come and gone, especially on hot-button issues such as abortion, but Trump’s belief that America is being ripped off by the world has remained one of his core values.
So has his innate conviction that tariffs are the solution, despite arguments by opponents and many economists that US consumers will suffer when importers pass on increased prices.
– ‘Ripping off’ –
“I am a Tariff Man,” Trump declared in a social media post back in 2018 during his first presidential term.
In fact, Trump has been saying as much since the 1980s.
His main target then was Japan, as Trump — best known in those days as a brash property dealer and tabloid fixture — discussed getting into politics in an interview with CNN’s Larry King.
“A lot of people are tired of watching other countries ripping off the United States,” Trump said in 1987, using rhetoric that has changed little in the intervening 38 years.
“Behind our backs, they laugh at us because of our own stupidity.”
In a separate interview with chat show host Oprah Winfrey, he raged: “We let Japan come in and dump everything right into our markets.”
By the 1990s and early 2000s, China entered his crosshairs, and Beijing remains one of his top tariff targets, along with Canada, Mexico and the European Union.
In his successful 2016 election campaign, Trump stepped up the rhetoric, saying: “We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country.”
– ‘Very rich’ –
During his second term, Trump has also started citing a historical precedent going back more than a century — President William McKinley.
McKinley’s passion for both territorial expansion and economic protectionism during his time in office from 1897 to 1901 could have been the model for Trump’s “Make America Great Again” policies.
“President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent — he was a natural businessman,” Trump said in his inauguration speech in January.
Trump’s promises of a “Golden Age” harkens back to the so-called “Gilded Age” that culminated with McKinley’s presidency, a time when America’s population and economy exploded — along with the power of oligarchs.
In addition to deploying tariffs, McKinley presided over a period of territorial adventurism for the United States, including the Spanish-American war and the purchases of Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines.
Such moves echo Trump’s own designs for Greenland, Panama and Canada.
The two also share the unwanted similarity of being struck by an assassin’s bullet — although Trump survived the attempt on his life at an election rally last July, while McKinley was killed by an anarchist in 1901.
By AFP
March 31, 2025
Donald Trump has insisted on the benefits of tariffs for decades - Copyright AFP ROBERTO SCHMIDT
Donald Trump loves few things more than talking about his affinity for tariffs, but it’s nothing new: he’s been saying the same thing for decades.
“To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff,'” Trump repeatedly said on the campaign trail for the 2024 election.
He has since joked that it is now his fourth favorite word, after love, God and family — but his commitment to them remains as strong as ever.
The 78-year-old Republican has promised a “Liberation Day” for America on Wednesday when he announces sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs targeting any country that has import levies against US goods.
The sudden trade war has sent leading world economies scrambling — yet anyone surprised by the onslaught has not been listening to Trump himself.
Other policies have come and gone, especially on hot-button issues such as abortion, but Trump’s belief that America is being ripped off by the world has remained one of his core values.
So has his innate conviction that tariffs are the solution, despite arguments by opponents and many economists that US consumers will suffer when importers pass on increased prices.
– ‘Ripping off’ –
“I am a Tariff Man,” Trump declared in a social media post back in 2018 during his first presidential term.
In fact, Trump has been saying as much since the 1980s.
His main target then was Japan, as Trump — best known in those days as a brash property dealer and tabloid fixture — discussed getting into politics in an interview with CNN’s Larry King.
“A lot of people are tired of watching other countries ripping off the United States,” Trump said in 1987, using rhetoric that has changed little in the intervening 38 years.
“Behind our backs, they laugh at us because of our own stupidity.”
In a separate interview with chat show host Oprah Winfrey, he raged: “We let Japan come in and dump everything right into our markets.”
By the 1990s and early 2000s, China entered his crosshairs, and Beijing remains one of his top tariff targets, along with Canada, Mexico and the European Union.
In his successful 2016 election campaign, Trump stepped up the rhetoric, saying: “We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country.”
– ‘Very rich’ –
During his second term, Trump has also started citing a historical precedent going back more than a century — President William McKinley.
McKinley’s passion for both territorial expansion and economic protectionism during his time in office from 1897 to 1901 could have been the model for Trump’s “Make America Great Again” policies.
“President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent — he was a natural businessman,” Trump said in his inauguration speech in January.
Trump’s promises of a “Golden Age” harkens back to the so-called “Gilded Age” that culminated with McKinley’s presidency, a time when America’s population and economy exploded — along with the power of oligarchs.
In addition to deploying tariffs, McKinley presided over a period of territorial adventurism for the United States, including the Spanish-American war and the purchases of Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines.
Such moves echo Trump’s own designs for Greenland, Panama and Canada.
The two also share the unwanted similarity of being struck by an assassin’s bullet — although Trump survived the attempt on his life at an election rally last July, while McKinley was killed by an anarchist in 1901.
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