ANALYSIS — Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for a “new American industrialism,” promising foreign companies low taxes if they bring production to the U.S. — but threatening them with harsh tariffs if they do not.
Hours after President Joe Biden used his final United Nations General Assembly address as America’s commander in chief to urge cooperation among allies, the Republican nominee made no distinction between Washington’s friends and foes. All would be punished, should Trump win another term and their companies opt against adhering to his demands.
“Under my leadership we’re going to take other countries’ jobs,” Trump said during a midday speech in Georgia. “We’re going to take their factories, and we really had it rocking four years ago.”
“This horrific nightmare for American workers ends the day I take office,” he said in the swing state to chants of his last name and some hooting and hollering. “It’s so easy. China has used it for years. … The centerpiece of my plan is a manufacturing renaissance. It’s called a 15 percent tax rate for made in America.”
While Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has made up ground on Trump in many national and battleground-state polls, the former president continues to get higher marks on handling the economy. For instance, Trump had a 9 percentage point lead (50 percent to 41 percent) over the vice president on handling the economy, according to a recent NBC News survey. Sixty-five percent of respondents to the same survey said the U.S. is on the wrong track.
As the general campaign has turned to the homestretch, Trump has laid out a number of populist economic proposals — though he has been vague on how he would implement, pay for or work with Congress on them. He continued that on Tuesday; here are three takeaways.
‘It all goes away’
Trump continued making bold promises without explaining how he intends to achieve them, including pushing them through what analysts have projected will likely be razor-thin majorities in both chambers of Congress.
For instance, he spoke in front of a background that included these words: “15 percent tax,” a reference to the tax rate he wants to set for businesses and major corporations.
“We will give you the lowest taxes, the lowest energy costs, the lowest regulatory burden and free access to the biggest market in the world,” he said to cheers. “But it all goes away if you won’t make your product here.”
In a shot across the bow of allies and foes alike, Trump said countries whose companies continue to make goods abroad would, if he is elected, “pay a very substantial tariff” that would allow his administration to “take in hundreds of millions of dollars into the U.S. Treasury.”
It was a new version of his previous call to install sweeping tariffs on imported goods, which Democrats and some economists have warned would be passed to U.S. consumers.
Trump also has called for the elimination of taxes on tips, which Harris also did shortly after, and the establishment of a U.S. sovereign wealth fund — though he has not made clear how he would acquire those monies, nor how it would be managed. He also has floated capping interest payments on credit card debt at 10 percent, though experts have warned that access to new lines of credit likely would become scant.
Even before Trump spoke, the Harris campaign criticized his economic record as president.
“And the facts are clear: When he was president, Trump incentivized companies to ship American jobs to China, and Trump’s second term agenda promises to crush thousands of American manufacturing jobs, send even more jobs to China, and cost middle class families $4,000 a year through his ‘Trump tax,’” the campaign said in a statement.
‘You’ll have to sell it’
The speech also featured parts that reflected Trump’s bleak vision of the country, especially when Democrats control the White House.
He has spent the last three-and-a-half years calling Biden and Harris “incompetent” and “clowns,” describing an economic and cultural hellscape that he contends wiped out the great country that he had built.
The GOP nominee again warned Tuesday of a “1929-style [economic] depression,” if Harris becomes president, adding: “This woman is grossly incompetent.”
In a new attack line, Trump said Harris is on the one hand urging companies to move their factories here — but on the other proposing to slap high taxes on them. The same would be true for American business owners and corporations, he claimed.
“If it’s successful, you’ll have to sell it. Bad things happen. … Kamala is shutting down power plants nationwide,” he said, warning that “businesses will flee our country … if they can’t get energy.”
Trump’s comment again embellished the power of the Office of the Vice President, which has few actual powers granted by the Constitution and says nothing about veeps closing power plants on their own.
‘Leading by quite a bit’
The former president also appeared to overstate his polling advantage in the Peach State, which Biden won — in a surprise — in 2020 by just under 12,000 votes.
A RealClearPolitics-calculated average of multiple polls in Georgia that was updated Tuesday showed Trump leading there by 2.1 percentage points. Some political prognosticators, like Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales, list the state in the “Toss-up” column.
“We are doing very well in Georgia,” he said, contending “we are leading by quite a bit.”
The Cook Political Report in early August moved Georgia in Harris’ direction, with editor-in-chief Amy Walter writing in a post that “for the first time in a long time, Democrats are united and energized, while Republicans are on their heels. … In other words, the presidential contest has moved from one that was Trump’s to lose to a much more competitive contest,” she continued.
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