Mike Pence Has ‘Launched a Crusade’ Against Trump’s Tariffs

What Mike Pence Gets Right and Wrong On Trump’s Tariffs: Former Vice President Mike Pence launched a crusade against President Donald Trump’s tariff policies over the weekend, telling NBC News’ Meet the Press that the policy constitutes the “largest peacetime tax hike on the American people in the history of this country.” The comments come as President Trump teases new trade deals and a coming reduction in tariffs placed on global trade partners in recent months.

While Pence has refused to condemn every element of the second Trump administration, choosing to praise continued efforts to secure the border, the former VP noted that the president’s tariff strategy diverges dramatically from their first term policies.

“As we’re seated here, I understand the president is going to make an offer to 150 countries, but look, he and I have talked many times about trade. We’re here in Indiana, we’re one of the leading exporting states in the country. What we make here, what we grow and raise here, we sell around the world. I’ve always believed that trade means jobs,” Pence said.

Curiously, however, the former vice president indicated that he is supportive of using tariffs as a threat, but not supportive of following through on that threat.

“I came to respect President Trump’s willingness to use the threat of tariffs to negotiate, as we did with the new trade deal with Canada and Mexico, we renegotiated South Korea, we were well down the road of a trade agreement with Japan, with the UK, with the EU, during our time,” Pence said. “But there’s no question in this administration that he is surrounded, it appears to me, by people who nurture his more protectionist instincts, and as the president has said to me many times, he has a sense that other countries pay tariffs.”

The former vice president then laid out why he believes the tariffs, should they stick around, are a tax on the American people.

“The reality is that when Americans buy goods overseas, the company that imports those goods in this country pays the tariff, and more often than not, passes that along and higher prices to consumers,” Pence said.

Are Tariffs a Tax?

Pence argued, as many economists do, that tariffs raise the cost of goods imported from outside of the United States and therefore raise the price of those goods on the shelves.

However, President Trump and his administration argue that the tariffs benefit American workers and consumers in other ways.

For example, the Trump administration has worked over the last several months to generate billions of dollars in investment into American manufacturing – a move that would be much harder to realize if American companies could still count on the importation of cheaper goods made by factories with lower operating costs overseas.

Additionally, the Trump administration expects that in response to U.S. tariffs, foreign producers may lower their prices to remain competitive in the American market. What’s more, the president is on the record telling American companies to absorb the cost of tariffs where possible to avoid raising prices for American consumers.

“Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain. Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected. Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, ‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING,” the president said in response to Walmart CEO Doug McMillon’s announcement that the American supermarket company would be forced to raise prices.

Mike Pence and Donald Trump Are Both Right On Tariffs

In a sense, Pence is correct – assuming, of course, that American companies choose not to absorb those costs. On the flipside, President Trump is right to argue that these tariffs are not a tax – or, at least, that they do not have to be a tax on the American people.

Pence’s comments come as the Republican party in general warms to the president’s more “protectionist instincts,” as the former vice president puts it. However, some Republican heavyweights remain opposed to the policy, including libertarian Republican Senator Rand Paul, who recently pointed to business-sector resistance to Trump’s proposals as a reason to abandon the idea altogether.

About the Author:

Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society. His latest book is The Truth Teller: RFK Jr. and the Case for a Post-Partisan Presidency.