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The prospect of another four years of Donald Trump as president “should send shivers down the spine of business leaders,” a leading Democratic think tank said, pointing to Trump’s plans that include higher tariffs that could raise costs for businesses and consumers.
Trump’s protectionist trade proposals, threats to end the Federal Reserve’s independence and vows to crack down on immigration, including for skilled workers, should alarm business leaders, the center-left think tank Third Way said in a report released Friday.
The 10-point memo also includes a quote from Trump’s plan to extend the 2017 tax cuts, which economists say would add trillions of dollars to the US debt, and comments by Trump that CEOs who don’t support him should be “fired for incompetence.”
“He portrays himself as a businessman and a savior of business,” said Gabe Horowitz, senior vice president of economic programs at Third Way and co-author of the report. “His proposals would completely devastate the U.S. economy and deal a major blow to business.”
The report comes as Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is currently tied with President Trump in many polls with just over 80 days until the November election.
Before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race last month, he and Trump both outlined protectionist plans as they competed to win blue-collar votes in key battleground states in the industrial heartland of the Midwest.
Several business leaders have also criticized the Biden administration’s aggressive antitrust and regulatory policies.
The former real estate mogul has pledged to cut taxes and ease regulations, winning over deep-pocketed donors from Wall Street to Silicon Valley while touting his business acumen. He has won the support of several prominent hedge fund and tech billionaires, including Steve Schwarzman, Bill Ackman and Elon Musk.
Speaking in North Carolina on Wednesday and at a news conference at his New Jersey country club on Thursday, Trump promised that four more years in the White House would bring about a “whole new Trump economic boom.” He said a loss to Harris would trigger a “1929-style recession.”
“We wanted to speak about the economy. A lot of people have been hit hard by what’s happened with inflation and other issues,” Trump said Wednesday. “They say it’s the most important issue. I don’t know if that’s true, but they say it’s the most important issue.”
The Republican nominee blamed Biden and Harris for the recent surge in inflation and vowed to lower the prices of cars, homes, insurance and prescription drugs.
But Trump has also pledged to impose aggressive tariffs that economists warn would make imported goods more expensive. He previously floated the idea of imposing a 10% tariff on all imports, but on Wednesday signaled he might double the tariffs.
“We’re going to impose tariffs of 10 to 20 percent on foreign countries that have cheated us for years,” Trump said.
Trump has also vowed to impose tariffs of up to 60% on Chinese imports, and President Biden also imposed high tariffs on some Chinese products earlier this year, including a 100% tax on electric vehicles.
President Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, is alarming Wall Street executives with his protectionist policy proposals and his praise for the Biden administration’s aggressive Federal Trade Commission chairwoman, Lina Khan.
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Vice President Harris has been trying to establish her own position since taking over from Biden as the Democratic nominee and is due to deliver her own speech in North Carolina on Friday hinting at her economic policy.
In the speech, Trump is expected to announce a crackdown on what his campaign calls “corporate price gouging,” particularly on food and groceries, and to lay out proposals to make housing more affordable, including tax breaks for home builders who build first homes for first-time buyers and a tax credit of up to $25,000 for qualified first-time home buyers.
Polls of U.S. voters have consistently shown they are dissatisfied with Biden’s handling of the economy, which they rank as the most important issue in the election, and are particularly concerned about inflation, which hit a multi-decade high in 2022 but has since been declining.
But a new FT Michigan Ross poll conducted this month showed Harris narrowly ahead of Trump, who is given higher approval from voters on the economy.
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