Trump Threatens Risky Tariff Scheme Without Congressional OK

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump threatened on Monday to impose high tariffs on imports if he is elected, regardless of whether Congress could pass them or not.

“Number one, I don’t need them. I don’t need Congress, but they’ll approve it,” Trump said at an agriculture-themed campaign stop in Smithton, Pennsylvania.

“I’ll have the right to impose them myself if they don’t. I’d rather get their support. The ones that understand business all support it,” he said.

Prior to the Great Depression, tariff rates were mostly set by Congress. But in the wake of global trade barriers put up during the Depression, Congress delegated authority to negotiate international trade deals to the president, subject to congressional approval.

But the president also retains some power to unilaterally set tariffs, including under national security and anti-dumping laws, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Trump’s comments marked the latest round in the former president’s tirades about trade and threats to impose barriers whose cost most economists say would fall squarely on consumers.

Trump has consistently said he would impose a 10% tax on imports from most countries and has often threatened a higher tariff of up to 60% on goods from China, the world’s second-largest economy.

Though Trump has billed tariffs as a cost-free way to raise huge amounts of money for the government and punish countries perceived as uncooperative with the United States, economists have warned they could cause havoc for the economy, especially if they ignite a trade war with other big economic powers.

Contrary to Trump’s claims, most economists, regardless of which school of economics they belong to, agree that consumers usually bear most of the brunt of higher tariffs by paying higher prices.

A survey by the University of Chicago’s business school released Sept. 10 found 95% of its respondents agreed that a substantial portion of tariffs are “borne by consumers of the country that enacts the tariffs, through price increases.” Only 2% disagreed.

The Kamala Harris campaign has dubbed the plan to impose higher tariffs a “Trump tax” akin to a sales tax and pointed to studies by the liberal Center for American Progress and the conservative American Action Forum that estimated its potential effects.

CAP found a broad 10% tariff and 60% tariff on Chinese goods would raise costs to families by up to $3,900 annually, the same figure also calculated by AAF.

Sarafina Chitika, a spokesperson for Vice President Harris’ campaign, said Trump’s remarks show he would “bulldoze Congress” to enact his tariffs.

“This is the core tenet of Trump’s Project 2025 playbook: Seize power for himself, squeeze the middle class to the tune of nearly $4,000 a year and make high costs even worse ― all as he and his billionaire friends get another tax giveaway. Voters know they can’t afford Trump’s national sales tax, and they’ll vote accordingly this November,” Chitika said.