Donald Trump is escalating his threats to increase tariffs on imports if he wins a second term in the White House, reviving fears of renewed trade wars that hit the global economy during his presidency.
On Saturday, Trump went further, promising tariffs of 100 per cent on imports from countries that were moving away from using the dollar — a threat that could engulf many developing economies too.
“I’ll say, ‘you leave the dollar, you’re not doing business with the United States. Because we’re going to put a 100 per cent tariff on your goods,’” he said at a rally in Wisconsin.
“If we lost the dollar as the world currency, I think that would be the equivalent of losing a war,” he told the Economic Club of New York on Thursday.
His only tool seems to be tariffs. It is his “hammer” and everything looks like a nail to him. He doesn’t care how trade wars hit the poor and middle class the hardest and jack up the cost of living. It is bad enough that they are jacking up the cost of chinese ev cars while at the same time saying we need to go to ev cars by 2035.
Tariffs are great for his base because they see it as a tax on their perceived “enemies”, when in reality they’re the ones footing the higher prices.