Donald Trump 'Can't Guarantee' Tariffs Won't Cost Americans More

Donald Trump says he can’t guarantee his plan to impose sweeping tariffs on America’s top trade partners won’t hurt people’s pocketbooks.

Asked if he could promise Americans won’t pay more under his proposed trade policies during Sunday’s episode of Meet the Press, the president-elect conceded, “I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t guarantee tomorrow.”

But during his first major interview since November’s election, he told host Kristen Welker he still believed imposing tariffs on goods from China, Canada, Mexico and beyond would “cost Americans nothing,” contrary to what many economists have predicted.

Trump’s plan to levy double digit tariffs on trade partners could ding middle-income households $2,600 a year, according to estimates from the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Though Trump has repeatedly claimed the burden of tariff costs would fall on America’s trade partners, it is American importers who pay US Customs and Border Protection for tariffs when exported products are brought into the country.

Big businesses like Walmart, Lowes, Black & Decker, and more have warned that they may have to increase prices if extra export taxes are imposed. 

Further defending his proposed tariffs during the interview, Trump told Welker he’ll be intentional while enacting such policies.

“They have many purposes, tariffs, if properly used,” he explained. “I don’t say you use them like a madman. I say properly used.”