Last-minute Trump vows – from more tariffs to fewer chips – to add final wrinkle to 2024 contest (video)

New economic policy promises typically aren’t released in the final weeks of a presidential campaign. But that’s still a norm that Donald Trump and his allies have changed in recent days.

The pledges came fast and furious, including a final escalation of Trump’s tariff promises on the final day of the campaign, with the former president pledging to impose new blanket tariffs on Mexico.

“You’re the first people I’ve told that to,” Trump said a Raleigh crowdNC, on the last full day of campaigning on Monday. “Congratulations, North Carolina.”

It’s a pledge that came alongside recent talk by Trump and his allies of dramatically reversing course on a signature Biden-era semiconductor bill that catalyzed more than $400 billion in investment in the semiconductor sector, even renewed talk of repealing the Affordable Care Act.

Whether all of this helps Trump’s chances in a toss-up contest remains to be seen, but it’s still a factor for last-minute voters to consider as the 2024 contest draws to a close.

The series of promises could further worry economists who have long noted that Trump’s various plans could reignite inflation or upend key economic sectors if he takes even a fraction of the dramatic actions he has it is referred to in the electoral campaign.

A promise to Mexico of a “tariff on everything” of 25-100%

What was likely the latest policy revelation came on Monday, when Donald Trump took the country by storm and delivered a new message for America’s biggest trading partner: Mexico.

“If we don’t stop this onslaught of criminals and drugs coming into our country,” he told the Raleigh crowd, then “I will immediately impose a 25 percent tariff on everything I send into the United States of America.”

He added that if that doesn’t work, it will go up to 100% tariffs on Mexican goods.

It was a new addition to Trump’s intense tariff promisesfrom 60% tariffs on Chinese goods to 10-20% general tariffs on trade allies to 200% tariffs on Mexican automobiles.

Trump claimed he wanted to hold off on announcing this latest policy because he didn’t want Vice President Kamala Harris to copy it. That’s unlikely, with Harris and her allies regularly attacking Trump’s tariff ideas as a $4,000 tax on the American people.

Tariffs are taxes paid by companies at US points of entry as they bring in goods. These additional costs are largely passed on to consumers.

The reference to a 100 percent tariff on Mexico prompted Brendan Duke, a left-leaning economist, to raise his estimate of how much Trump’s tariffs would cost a typical family.

He previously estimated that a blanket 20 percent tariff plus 60 percent customs duties on Chinese goods would cost that family $3,900.

On Monday, he said he would impose a 100 percent tariff on Mexico bring the tab up to $5,700.

While many in the business community dismissed Trump’s tariff promises as bluster, Trump’s record stretching back to 2016 showed that tends to keep – or at least try to keep – its tariff promises.

Many expect him to impose some flavor of new historic duties if he wins, but the key question appears to be whether the courts will step in to block it.

Other Cutting-edge Semiconductors and Health Care Promises

Another cutting-edge political debate is related to the Chips and Science Act of 2022, which was signed by Biden and is in the process of sending about $50 billion to the semiconductor sector. This has generated more than $400 billion in new investment by chipmakers.

Late last month, Trump said podcaster Joe Rogan “That chip business is so bad,” prompted Vice President Kamala to remind swing states — particularly Michigan and Arizona — that much of the money was going to them.

But the issue received a new level of attention last Friday when House Speaker Mike Johnson responded a question about whether he would try to repeal the law, to which he voted against, saying “I expect we probably will.”

It didn’t help that the comment came during a stop in New York state, where money from that bill will help boost thousands of jobs.

A number of lawmakers immediately jumped in to defend the law, and President Johnson immediately backtracked and claimed he had misheard the question. He said he was only looking to reform the law.

As for the chance of repeal actually happening. Rhodium Group director Reva Goujon advised caution an appearance in Yahoo Finance on Monday, She said: “It is highly unlikely that the CHIPS Act will be repealed. There is bipartisan support for industrial policy, especially for chips.”

But Trump’s last pre-election word on the issue appears to be that podcast appearance, in which he told Rogan “when you see us paying a lot of money for people to build chips, that’s not the way to go” — suggesting that tariffs are a better approach. .

Johnson also had to clarify remarks in recent days about what he and Trump would do about health care, after Trump supported repealing the law while refusing to offer a plan for what would replace it .

Johnson again amplified the problem when a video surfaced of him with supporters saying “no Obamacare” and adding the program needed massive reform to work.

It was one more comment that Johnson sought to clarify; it has also been brought up by Democrats and could be a factor for voters in the final days of the 2024 contest.

Ben Werschkul is the Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.

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