Former President Donald Trump sought to offer a more detailed economic message in a speech Thursday in New York — and paid special attention to his oft-criticized program for a new wave of tariffs on US imports from around the world.
“Some might call it economic nationalism, I call it common sense," Trump told the crowd of business leaders at the Economic Club of New York.
He also declined to offer exact rates, but seemed to suggest that if he were elected he could even implement higher duties than he has previously discussed. “I won't name the percentage today but it will be a certain tariff percentage which will be higher than people had heard in the past,” Trump added Thursday.
Trump has previously proposed to levy tariffs of 10% to 20% on US trading partners with higher 60% rates on China. It's a plan that economists have been worried for months could spur inflation anew.
The former president also offered a wide array of other ideas in the nearly 80-minute speech and question and answer session.
His other proposals unveiled Thursday included an endorsement of a government efficiency commission first recommended by Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, a new effort to cut government red tape, a decrease in the federal corporate tax rate to 15% from its current level of 21%, a declaration of a “national emergency” to spur more oil drilling, and the rescinding of certain unspent green energy funds passed in Biden's Inflation Reduction Act.
But it was when the subject turned to tariffs that Trump became the most clearly animated as he defended his long-term priority first undertaken during his previous time in the White House.
He returned to the topic again and again to push back on his critics.
“Smart tariffs will not create inflation, they will combat inflation,” he said at one point in an attempt to push back on one oft-lodged critique of his plan. Trump and his allies often note that inflation was low when he was in office from 2017-2021 as he implemented that era's tariffs.
Trump aides also underlined that a reelected Trump could be eager to implement these ideas quickly, likely without input from Congress.
“There certainly is a lot of current law that permits tariffs to be put in place in various circumstances,” former Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told reporters ahead of the speech.
"We saw that during our last administration and I suspect you will see some kind of a combination of both this time too."
Lighthizer and other Trump allies have previously discussed different laws to get his tariffs done quickly in 2025 and at higher levels than his previous term if he wins. One previously unutilized option is a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which allows the president to declare an economic emergency and act accordingly.
A wary audience to Trump's message
The deep dive into the trade topic from Trump comes as the business community's wariness of his plans continues to be a notable headwind for the president.
A new research note from Goldman Sachs underlined the worries this week when it found that — at least when it comes to the gross domestic product — a Kamala Harris win with a Democrat sweep of Congress is the best outcome for economic growth.
The analysts wrote that Harris in the White House could lead to “a very slight boost to GDP growth on average over 2025-2026.” But Trump victory scenarios would hit the GDP in large part because of a ”hit to growth from tariffs.”
Trump aides have dismissed the Goldman Sachs analysis as overly influenced by politics but it’s just the latest study that underlines the possible costs of Trump’s new tariff plans, which are duties levied on companies when their goods arrive at US ports of entry.
The Peterson Institute for International Economics has run the numbers and found that Trump's ideas for 60% duties on China and 10% on other trading partners would lead to a typical middle-class household paying at least $1,700 more each year.
Another estimate from Brendan Duke of the left-leaning Center for American Progress comes in even higher. He found that a 20% tariff combined with 60% on Chinese goods could mean an additional cost of $3,900 for a typical family each year.
That latter stat is one that Vice President Kamala Harris and her campaign have highlighted again and again in recent weeks, comparing it to a national sales tax.
Yet, Trump again and again returned to the tariff topic during Wednesday’s speech as a linchpin of his potential second-term agenda.
He said the tariffs could bring in billions and reduce deficits. He said they would help rebuild the US auto industry. At one point, he also expressed nostalgia for a long-ago era when tariffs were a main driver of US revenue “before income tax came along.”
"In short, it will be an economic renaissance," he promised of what a second round of trade wars would usher in.
Ben Werschkul is Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
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