Trump’s War With the Press Takes a Terrifying Turn

“[Trump’s plans] will come at the expense of potentially larger budget deficits, potentially larger debt and there is also the inflation dimension,” Charles-Henry Monchau, chief investment officer at Banque Syz & Co, told the business publication. “There’s been a realization that there is a price to pay for this.”

Trump has floated several tariff ideas—including one impossibly high hike on imported goods of between 200 and 2,000 percent—that experts believe would drastically spike inflation. Businesses across the country have balked at his numbers, arguing that it will be Americans, not foreign countries, who pay the price. Readying themselves for a potential second Trump administration, companies whose business models rely on foreign suppliers, from the auto industry to some of the nation’s most popular clothing lines, are planning to introduce price hikes on their products.

Trump has also proposed a more modest 20–60 plan, in which a potential second Trump administration would impose a 20 percent worldwide tariff alongside a 60 percent tariff on Chinese goods. But even that plan would prove devastating for the economy, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, which found that it would lower household incomes by an average of $3,000 in 2025.