Vance: When Trump Imposed Tariffs, There Was Low Inflation

Republican vice-presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) said Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that when then-President Donald Trump imposed tariffs, it did not cause inflation.

Vance said, “So one of the classic examples that economists use to attack, or some economists, I should say, use to attack Donald Trump’s economic policies is the tariffs that he imposed on washing machines and other dishwashers — sorry, on dishwashers. So they show a chart that says, well, look, a few months after this tariff, the price of dishwashers went up a little bit. But if you look over two years, actually the price of dishwashers went down. You induced a lot of American factories to invest in American workers and American-made products. And the price of dishwashers has actually lagged behind the price of a lot of other home appliances. So sometimes when you induce investment and capital formation in the United States of America, it does lower prices on American workers.”

He added, “And again, the experience of Donald Trump’s presidency, he was president for four years. He did impose tariffs sometimes to induce more investment in American workers. And what happened? We had 1.5 percent inflation, rising take-home pay, and the best economy for workers in 40 years.”

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