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It has become almost a rite of passage for Donald Trump and his supporters to believe that tariffs can magically mend the economy. However, the fundamental misunderstanding here is that tariffs are not a bill sent to foreign governments; they are, in truth, a cost passed directly onto American consumers.
Despite evidence indicating that his initial wave of tariffs is nudging the economy closer to recession, Trump has doubled down on his strategy of economic turmoil by announcing plans to impose tariffs on prescription drugs, which could inflate prices even further for American consumers.
While addressing an audience in the Oval Office, Trump proclaimed:
It’s also exciting because of what’s happening with other aspects. We’re gonna be doing tariffs on pharmaceuticals in order to bring our pharmaceutical industry back. We don’t make anything here for, in terms of drugs, medical drugs, different types of drugs that you need. Medicines in other countries, largely made in China.
A lot of it made in Ireland. Ireland was very smart. We love Ireland. But, we’re gonna have that, we’re gonna have lumber. We’re gonna free up some of our land, and you’ll be able to meet a lot of other standards like fire cuts. If Los Angeles had fire cuts, which they didn’t have, that’s a, a gap of half a football field between areas, you wouldn’t have had the fires, they would’ve been contained.
But you have fire cuts. And by the way, you sell that wood for a lot of money, a lot of, lot of profit.
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Perhaps the most significant announcement was Trump’s decision to impose a hefty 25% tariff on all automobiles not manufactured in the United States—effectively targeting nearly every car on the road today.
