Inflation has risen in three of the last four months and is slightly higher than it was a year ago. Yet you wouldn’t know it from listening to President Donald Trump or even some of the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve who have dismissed or even downplayed inflation.
Doubling tariffs today will make it look like deflation occurs harder when they drop the tariffs later.
A few people will show the data correcting for tariffs, but will be drowned out by the “we did it, prices have come down for Americans” message.
Will businesses be able to trust that he won’t just apply them again if he has a bad hair day? Even if they did, I can imagine that lower costs for companies would just be used to increase profits, not lower prices.