House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday hammered President Trump and congressional Republicans with accusations that they’re tanking the economy in the name of boosting it.
The Democratic leader noted that the president’s central campaign theme was a promise to bring down the cost of consumer staples. Instead, he charged, the president’s plan to impose a round of new tariffs on Wednesday — what Trump has dubbed “Liberation Day” — will do just the opposite.
"House Republicans, Senate Republicans and Donald Trump haven't done a single thing to lower the cost of living in this country. Not a single bill. Not a single executive order. Not a single administrative action,” Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol.
“In fact, Republicans are crashing the American economy in real time and driving us to a recession. This is not liberation day, it's recession day,” he continued.
“That's what the Trump tariffs are going to do: crash the economy.”
On the campaign trail, Trump and his Republican allies had bashed the Biden administration over the economy, blaming the Democrats for the inflationary trend that accompanied the global COVID-19 pandemic. Trump, a wealthy real estate mogul, vowed to use his business experience to relieve the pressure on consumers immediately.
“Starting on Day 1, we will end inflation and make America affordable again,” he said during an August event.
Yet Trump’s erratic economic prescriptions — including an on-again-off-again tariff policy — have destabilized markets, rattling investors, sinking consumer confidence and causing a sharp drop in the stock market.
A new poll from Marquette Law School revealed that, while Republicans rate the economy better under Trump than Biden, a majority of GOP voters still consider the current economy to be “not so good” or “poor.”
The numbers have not discouraged Trump, who is pushing ahead with his ambitious tariff policy. On Wednesday afternoon, he’s scheduled to unveil his most expansive tariffs to date, which are expected to target even some of America’s closest allies and largest trading partners.
Trump says the move is necessary to rectify what he considers decades of trade imbalances that have disadvantaged the U.S.
“We helped everybody, and they don’t help us,” Trump said earlier this week.
Democrats have other ideas, warning that the additional costs to businesses will simply be passed along to consumers.
"Costs aren't going down in America, they're going up,” Jeffries said Wednesday. “And the Trump tariffs are going to make things more costly."
