Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Tuesday staunchly defended his largely criticized second-term economic plan to impose across-the-board tariffs on imports — and minimized the Jan. 6 riots by arguing there was a peaceful transfer of power on Inauguration Day in 2021.
The former president’s event in Chicago was before a receptive crowd, a downtown banquet room full of the Economic Club of Chicago’s members and their guests, who often applauded the former president’s digs at moderator John Micklethwait, Bloomberg editor-in-chief, and at the “fake media.” Trump was also met with laughter when he repeatedly called the 44th president, “Barack Hussein Obama,” a dog whistle he has used for years to falsely suggest he is Muslim.
Micklethwait reminded the president several times about the dangers of tariffs on imports, including its effects on trade, jobs and consumers.
Trump has proposed a 60% tariff on goods from China and up to 20% of a tariff on everything else the U.S. imports. He has repeatedly claimed that foreign countries pay tariffs — but those are paid by the countries that import the goods.
“To me, the world’s most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariffs. It’s my favorite word. It needs a public relations firm… If I’m going to be president of this country, I’m going to put a 100, 200, 2,000% tariff. They’re not going to sell one car in the United States,” Trump said, referring to Mexico.
Sixteen Nobel Prize-winning economists in June wrote a letter expressing fear that Trump’s economics proposals, which also include deporting millions of migrant workers, would “reignite” an inflation level that is nearly back to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Many economists aren’t fans of Vice President Kamala Harris’ economic agenda, but they have argued that her plan would leave the inflation outlook unchanged.
Trump challenged Micklethwait’s resistance to his tariff plan, including that 40 million jobs could be jeopardized by his plan.
“It must be hard for you to spend 25 years talking about tariffs being negative and then have somebody explain to you that you’re totally wrong,” he said to laughs.
Trump argued that if you make tariffs, “so high, so horrible, so obnoxious,” factories will come back to America.
Trump’s second visit to Chicago this year was much less chaotic than his July visit during a National Association of Black Journalists conference, in which he questioned the racial identity of Vice President Kamala Harris. The shortened session was full of incendiary comments from the ex-president, including claims of undocumented immigrants taking “Black jobs” and the Democratic presidential nominee of “only promoting Indian heritage.”
But the former president on Tuesday touched upon plenty of controversy — refusing to admit whether he has been in contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin and downplaying the violence of Jan. 6. Trump said he would put tech mogul Elon Musk in charge of “cost-cutting” should he win, and said he should have the right to discuss interest rates with the Federal Reserve chair.
“I think I should have the right to say…comment as to whether or not interest rates should go up or down,” Trump said.
Of Jan. 6, Trump said the rally that preceded the riot “was love and peace and some people went to the Capitol.” He downplayed that it was his supporters who stormed the Capitol to try to stop Congress from formally counting Electoral College votes that made Joe Biden the president.
When asked “yes or no” whether he has spoken to Putin since leaving office, a claim made by veteran journalist Bob Woodward in his latest book, Trump refused to answer.
“Well I don’t comment on that,” Trump said. “But I will tell you that if I did, it’s a smart thing. If I’m friendly with people, if I can have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing and not a bad thing in terms of a country.”
After the event, Gov. J.B Pritzker called Trump a “rambling, incoherent, insulting old man determined to drive our economy into the deepest ditch he can find.” The Democratic governor said Trump’s economic plan would “increase costs, deepen the deficit, and kill jobs yet Trump continues to double down on them.”
“Why? Because Trump doesn’t care about American workers or American jobs, he only cares about himself and his wealthiest donors,” Pritzker said.
Mayor Brandon Johnson called the former president’s plan “nothing more than a massive tax break for billionaires and big corporations while working people get stuck with higher prices for everyday goods because of his foolish tariff proposals.”
Harris’ campaign on Tuesday pointed to a Wall Street Journal survey of economists, who said that Trump’s policies will drive up costs, interest rates and the deficit.
“There is a clear consensus among economic experts — including many conservative-leaning ones — that Donald Trump’s plans will hurt the economy and the middle class,” the Harris campaign said.