When President Donald Trump detailed his far-reaching tariff plans on Wednesday, April 2 — the day he touted as “Libertarian Day” — much of the criticism came from Democrats. But some Never Trump conservatives are speaking out as well, from MSNBC host Joe Scarborough to former GOP strategist/consultant Stuart Stevens. And Trump critics on both the left and the right are warning that his new tariffs will make a variety of goods much more expensive without yielding the economic boom that Trump is promising.
Another Never Trumper who is vehemently critical of Trump’s tariffs is veteran Washington Post columnist George F. Will. In his April 4 column, however, Will emphasizes that tariffs are only one of the reasons why Trump is problematic on the economy.
“Donald Trump’s economic agenda, from taxes to tariffs — which are themselves taxes — is variable because he believes in the immediate translation of whims into policy proposals, without an intervening pause for study,” the 83-year-old Will argues. “His conversation with a Las Vegas waitress quickly became his proposal to end taxation on tips. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says Trump suddenly favors eliminating ‘taxes’ on people making less than $150,000 a year — in 2022, about 93 percent of Americans 15 and over.”
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Will adds, “Progressives want income taxation to be more progressive so the wealthy will pay ‘their fair share.’ Trump is more progressive still, wanting the wealthy to pay everyone else’s share, too.”
Trump’s economic agenda, according to Will, fails to take into account the size of the United States’ federal deficit.
“As, second by second, the government borrows substantial sums to pay interest on the money it has borrowed, remember: The national debt was $20 trillion when Donald Trump began his first administration, having vowed to eliminate the debt in eight years,” Will writes. “It was $28 trillion when Joe Biden’s presidency began. As Maya MacGuineas at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget notes, it reached $32 trillion on June 15, 2023; $33 trillion 92 days later; $34 trillion 105 days after that; $35 trillion in another 210 days; and $36 trillion in another 118. It will reach $37 trillion after Congress raises the debt ceiling sometime this summer.”
The longtime Post columnist adds, “All of these numbers reflect the optimistic, perhaps fanciful assumptions that the post-‘Liberation Day’ economy does not sag into a recession. In any case: This. Will. Not. End. Well.”
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George Will’s full column is available at this link (subscription required).
