Trump promotes raising tariffs, corporate tax cut in battle over economy with Harris

Taxes and the economy are taking center stage in the 2024 presidential campaign. (Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he would protect American industries if he is reelected by increasing tariffs on imports while cutting other taxes and regulations, in a speech to the Economic Club of New York.

The GOP presidential candidate’s remarks came as the economy has taken center stage in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. Both Trump and the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, have criticized a ballooning national deficit, high housing costs and increasingly expensive groceries.

In a wide-ranging speech that also framed his hardline immigration position in economic terms and blasted Harris for what he said were the policy shortcomings of the Biden administration, Trump laid out several planks of an economic platform focused on corporate tax cuts and protectionist policies that he predicted would boost domestic manufacturing.

“Some might say it’s economic nationalism,” he said. “I call it common sense. I call it America First … We have to take care of our own nation and our industries first.”

Trump’s speech came one day after Harris delivered new proposals to cut taxes on small businesses during a speech at a brewery in New Hampshire.

While Trump would cut corporate taxes and extend the tax cut for high earners that he signed during his first term, he said he would raise tariffs, which are taxes on foreign goods. Doing so would compel U.S. companies to keep their production jobs in the country, he said.

Tariffs would also seed a new “sovereign wealth fund” that would “return a gigantic profit,” he said.

He told the economists and business professionals in the room that he would lean on them to advise on the fund, and that it would be flush with cash from tariffs on foreign imports.

The “greatest sovereign wealth fund,” he said, would also pay for infrastructure, defense capabilities and “cutting-edge medical research,” as well as pay down the nation’s debt.

“We’ll create America’s own sovereign wealth fund to invest in great national endeavors for the benefit of all of the American people,” he said. “Why don’t we have a wealth fund? Other countries have wealth funds. We have nothing. We have nothing. We’re going to have a sovereign wealth fund or we can name it something different.”

Tax battle

Trump told the group that Harris would raise taxes, including on unrealized gains on…