Trump Defends Tariffs on Twitter

In a series of tweets before a campaign rally in suburban Columbus, Ohio, and again on Aug. 5, President Donald Trump said tariffs "are working big time," and "foolish people scream" when his government imposes them. He said because of tariffs, America is winning, and China is "doing poorly against us" for the first time, and other countries' economies are hurting, too. Trump's preferred metric, the trade deficit, is still growing, through June and is up 7 percent compared to the first half of 2017. He said China is spending a fortune trying to convince "our politicians to fight me on tariffs."

"Tariffs will make our country much richer than it is today. Only fools would disagree," he said, because either the leverage will work to get better free trade deals, or "if countries are still unwilling to negotiate, they will pay us vast sums of money in the form of Tariffs. We win either way."

It's U.S. companies or individuals who pay the import taxes, not foreign producers, though high enough tariffs can disrupt trade patterns. "Because of Tariffs we will be able to start paying down large amounts of the $21 Trillion in debt that has been accumulated, much by the Obama Administration, while at the same time reducing taxes for our people," Trump said. The amount that could be collected in tariffs is not yet known, since the scope of the tariffs on Chinese imports is yet to be determined, and whether there will be tariffs on autos and auto parts is also unclear. The tariffs collected so far on steel and aluminum is $1 billion, Secretary Wilbur Ross has said.