White House officials have repeatedly argued in recent months that Donald Trump’s economic plans would worsen inflation, not improve it. As Axios reported, President Joe Biden’s team is now getting some support from a very credible group of economists.
This follows a recent New York Times report that noted that “several” of the former president’s proposals “would instead put new upward pressure on prices, according to interviews with half a dozen economists.”
When it comes to the presumptive Republican Party nominee and inflation, there are three core truths we should keep in mind. The first is that Trump doesn’t seem to know what inflation is or how it works.
As my MSNBC colleague Hayes Brown explained last month, the former president spoke at length about the issue in his April interview with Time magazine, offering a “truly maddening” insight into Economics 101. Trump claimed shortly afterward that the “real” inflation the rate is “probably 40% or 50% if you add things up” which made no sense at all.
Two weeks ago, the Republican emphasized at a campaign event in Michigan that President Joe Biden does not know the meaning of the word “inflation.” It was the latest in a series of “every accusation is a confession” moment.
The second fact to remember is that the Republican candidate doesn’t even pretend to have a plan to address the problem. For example, in 2022, as post-pandemic inflation emerged as one of the top public concerns, Trump appeared on Fox News and was asked what he would do to address inflation if he were in the White House. The Republican gave a long, meandering and wildly dishonest answer haven’t even tried it to answer the underlying question.
It was a two-minute exchange That made a simple truth unavoidable: the former president wants to complain about inflation, but he has no idea how to improve it.
Finally, you don’t need a postgraduate degree in economics to know that the Nobel laureates are right in their assessment of Trump’s agenda.
For example, if Trump wins a second term and launches the largest mass deportation program in modern history, this would inevitably cause prices to rise. The Republican’s plan for sweeping and ambitious tariffs would also be inherently inflationary.
While we’re at it, Trump is also eyeing more tax breaks for the wealthy, which would — you guessed it — likely worsen inflation. And did I mention that Team Trump also wants to devalue the US dollar? Because that is also an important part of the vision for a second term.
The combination of a smaller workforce, trade tariffs, unnecessary deficit-financed tax cuts, and a deliberately devalued currency is essentially an example of what a government would do if it wanted to make it harder for consumers to afford things.
In a recent column, Catherine Rampell of The Washington Post, noting these underappreciated truths, asked: “Remind me again why Americans think Donald Trump would be so much better on inflation and the economy?”
That doesn’t have to be a rhetorical question.
This message updates our related previous reporting.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
