CLAIM: Former President Donald Trump said during Tuesday night's presidential debate that U.S. import tariffs aren't to blame for record inflation under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Verdict: It's true. Studies have repeatedly shown that there is no connection between tariffs on U.S. imports and the ongoing inflation that is sapping the country's economy.
“We're putting tariffs on other countries that are finally, after 75 years, paying us back for all we've done for the world,” Trump said. “The tariffs, in some cases, are going to be substantial… [Biden and Harris] never [China] The amount was too large to eliminate the tariffs, but they were left in place.”
“When I was in office, we had tariffs but we didn't have inflation,” Trump said.
In fact, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), Notes There is no correlation between US tariffs and inflation.
“The timing of the tariffs is clearly uncorrelated with inflation, and removing the tariffs clearly would not have curbed inflation,” the EPI researchers wrote. “Although the majority of the tariffs were in place before 2020, inflation only began to accelerate in March 2021. Clearly inflation was driven by many factors other than the tariffs.”
During the debate, Harris again cited talking points from the libertarian-leaning American Taxpayers Union. lobby He advocates for unfettered free trade and opposes tariffs, arguing that U.S. tariffs amount to a “national sales tax” on middle-class Americans.
Breitbart News economics editor John Carney fact-checked the claim, noting that it's false to claim that the tariffs are a tax on American consumers.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter. here.
