Will Trump Lower Tariffs to Address Affordability?

President Donald Trump didn’t rule out reducing tariffs on some goods in order to address affordability concerns.

When asked by Politico if he would rule out reducing tariffs on any more goods, Trump said he would “on some” goods, adding on some, he will increase tariffs.

“Because you know what happens is because of tariffs, all of the car companies are coming back,” he said. “You know, we lost 58% of the automobile business. We had a monopoly in the world.”

Trump said he “inherited a total mess” from former President Joe Biden.

“Prices were at an all-time high when I came in,” he said. “Prices are coming down substantially. Prices are all coming down. It’s been 10 months. It’s amazing what we’ve done. If you think of gasoline a gallon, they had it at $4.50, almost $5. You go to some of the states, you had it at $6. We hit three states two days ago, $1.99 a gallon. When that happens, everything comes down. Now everything is coming down.”

Trump said beef prices will “start coming down pretty substantially.” On Monday, Trump announced he would make $12 billion in tariff revenues available to American farmers in response to temporary trade market disruptions and increased production costs.

Trump has previously called the word affordability “a hoax” made by the Democrats.

He repeated that the Democrats “love to say affordability, but then they never talk about it.”

“They’re the ones that gave us the high prices,” he said. “I’m the one that’s bringing them down.”