Donald Trump - is he just what the U.S. economy needs?

For many US voters, the economy was the driving force behind how they cast their vote on 5 November. Despite inflation and unemployment rates falling under Joe Biden’s presidency, millions of Americans feel that the Democrats have shown they can not be trusted with economic growth as the cost of living continues to remain significantly higher than it was pre-pandemic. Many Americans feel Donald Trump’s proposed economic plans are the only way to make living manageable again, but are they correct? 

In a similar fashion to his 2016 Presidency, Trump’s economic campaign focused largely on cutting taxes for both businesses and individuals. On the surface, this sounds like a great proposal for those who are currently struggling to keep up with rising grocery costs. However, cutting these taxes means Trump will need to find another source of income to make up for the loss tax cuts will create, especially since the US’s debt already already makes up 122.3% of the nation’s GDP.

Trump’s solution for this loss is to replace the money gained from tax with money gained from tariffs on foreign imports, as part of his ‘America First’ plan, which encourages US companies to make their products stateside. Trump has suggested that under his leadership, all foreign goods will face a levy of 20%, with goods from China facing a potential levy of 60%. However despite Trump’s bold claims that China and other nations will pay for these tariffs, the introduction of these tariffs will only further harm Americans daily lives as the companies that import these foreign made goods will likely pass the additional price onto consumers. 

This boldfaced lie by Trump about who will really have to pay for the tariffs along with his plan to use these tariffs to justify cutting taxes means that those Americans who voted for Trump to improve their daily economic life may be in for a shock. Given that over 20 American recipients of the Nobel prize for economics endorsed Kamala Harris’ economic plan over Trumps, it seems as though more voters should have listened to the experts. Whilst the current economic situation is undeniably difficult for many Americans, Trump is not the economic saviour he has painted himself to be.