On Monday evening, president-elect Donald Trump announced that he would impose steep tariffs on the U.S.’s top three trading partners — fees that will invariably raise consumer prices, effectively amounting to a regressive sales tax for most Americans.
Trump justified the tariffs by claiming they were meant to compel the three countries — Canada, Mexico and China — to address drug trafficking to the U.S. Trump’s statement addressed Canada and Mexico separately from China, saying that the tariffs would remain in place until those two countries changed their immigration policies.
“On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States,” Trump wrote in the first of his two Truth Social posts on the subject, adding that the punitive tariffs would “remain in effect” until an unspecified amount of drugs stops entering the country and immigration comes to a halt.
“Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem,” Trump said. “We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!”
In his second post, Trump focused on China, saying that he would charge that country “an additional 10% Tariff” above what they are currently paying.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reacted to Trump’s social media posts by suggesting that her country could impose tariffs of its own on U.S.-made goods.
“One tariff will be followed by another in response,” Sheinbaum said, noting that a trade war between the two countries would put common companies “in risk.”
Notably, tariffs affect consumers much more than the countries they’re imposed on. That’s because companies that sell products to the U.S. raise the prices of those products when tariffs are implemented, which in turn leads to higher prices on the shelves of marketplaces — essentially, tariffs become a tax on American consumers rather than the penalty on other countries that Trump makes them out to be.
An examination of Trump’s tax policy during the presidential campaign found that the vast majority of Americans would see their taxes increased under his presidency, due largely to his proposed tariffs — save for the wealthiest 5 percent of wage earners in the U.S., who would receive enormous tax cuts under Trump’s plan.
Those proposed tariffs would act as a regressive tax on American consumers, meaning those with smaller incomes would pay a higher rate of taxes. The middle 20 percent of wage earners, for example, would expect to see a 2.1 percent tax increase if Trump’s tariffs were implemented, while those earning the lowest 20 percent wages would see a 4.8 percent tax increase.
Several retailers, including C-level executives from Walmart, AutoZone, Black & Decker and others, have acknowledged that consumers would be paying more for products sold at their stores if Trump’s tariffs are implemented.
“Obviously, coming out of the gate, there would be price increases associated with tariffs that we put into the market,” Black & Decker CEO Donald Allan Jr. said recently.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy