President Donald Trump is doing everything he can to soften the economic blow of his trade battle with China, doling out billions of dollars in farmer bailouts and telling Americans that the Chinese are paying the tariffs he’s slapped on U.S. importers.
It’ll be a tough trick to execute, especially if Trump can’t cut a deal and the fight escalates to a full-scale trade war. All available evidence so far suggests it is American businesses and consumers — not the Chinese — paying Trump’s tariffs. And the farm bailout is running into political and logistical headaches.
If the president moves ahead with 25 percent tariffs on everything China exports to the United States, it could amount to a tax hike of more than $2,000 on the average American family, swamping the reduction they won from Trump’s signature legislative achievement — the 2017 tax law.
View the complete May 20 article by Ben White on the Politico website here.