As a businessman, Donald Trump believes he knows best how to handle the economy. He has vowed to set right the US economy once he takes office. This will mean protecting the home industry and bringing back manufacturing jobs to the country. When the world’s largest economy turns protectionist, abandoning decades of advocating free global trade, the world is bound to suffer the consequences.
Trump has promised to slap tariffs on all imported goods. Most will be between 10 to 20 percent, though Chinese products will have tariffs up to 60 percent. The higher tariffs is to encourage people to buy American. However, since US supermarkets are filled with imported goods, mostly from China, higher tariffs will mean higher costs. This will initially hurt American consumers. Perhaps as manufacturing picks up in a year or two the situation will ease, but tariffs can hurt in the short term. Tariff wars will not make things any easier for American consumers. As countries will impose retaliatory tariffs against US goods.
During his first term, Trump slapped tariffs on steel and aluminum, citing national security concerns. The tariffs were 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum. After announcing the hikes in 2018, he tweeted
"Trade wars are good, and easy to win." But as a result Canada and the European Union, targeted U.S. agricultural exports, hurting American farmers. Economists fear that trade tariffs will hurt the world economy and lead to tension between the US and other countries.
Trump has also promised to lower corporate tax rate to 15% from 21%, saying this would lead to economic growth and job creation at home. “I reduced the corporate tax to 21%. I'd love to bring it down to 15%,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Sept. 13. “It's a big job producer. We're talking about small businesses… Everybody would be pouring into the United States because our tax rate would be highly competitive.”
Though the US economy is doing well and America is the first G7 country to have recovered since the covid-19 slowdown, the growth has not trickled down or touched ordinary lives. Prices of everyday essentials remain high, pinching the pockets of ordinary Americans. Most people claim that they were better off during Trump’s tenure and their wages were enough to meet household expenses.
With Elon Musk, a Bitcoin enthusiast now turning into a Trump loyalist, cryptocurrency will flourish under a Trump presidency. Cryptocurrency companies are said to have donated millions to Trump’s election funds.
