Janette Doux

Trump is imposing a 54% tariff on China and 46% on Vietnam. This is absolutely insane, and is only going to raise prices significantly in the US. The US imported more than $430 billion of goods from China in 2024, and over $130 billion from Vietnam. This includes many electronics. Many companies that were previously manufacturing in China moved to Vietnam (and Mexico) due to US pressure. Now Trump is tariffing all of them. These blanket tariffs are not going to lead the US to re-industrialize. They will simply raise the price level. If the US truly wants to re-industrialize (which it should), it needs a real industrial policy: a clear plan for state-led development, involving heavy government investment in infrastructure, education, training, and industrial upgrading. Trump is not doing any of that -- on the contrary, he is combining Reaganomics with blanket tariffs. Targeted tariffs in very specific industries could indeed be helpful to boost competitiveness in manufacturing, in areas like, say, electric vehicles or semiconductors. But blanket tariffs on foreign goods are not going to do that. What is really happening is Trump is just using tariffs as a tax on consumers, to shift the tax burden even more off of wealthy elites and onto the poor. He is slashing taxes on the rich and corporations and imposing a heavy consumption tax on the poor and working class. Trump himself said the goal with these tariffs is to raise more government revenue. He will do so on the back of average working Americans -- which will probably cause a recession, which now looks increasingly likely.