Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration is off to an ominous start.
In the same interview, Bessent also dismissed concerns that Trump’s tariffs have pummeled stocks on the ground that “the top 10 percent of Americans own 88 percent of equities.” It’s certainly true that wealthy people have most of the wealth. Gallup reports, however, that 65 percent of people in its middle-income category — making $40,000 to $100,000 — own stocks, either directly or through their retirement plans. It’s probably not much comfort to them to hear that billionaires are losing more money to the tariffs than they are.
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Fox News tried out several other defenses of the tariffs. It published an article theorizing that Trump’s tariffs are a “calculated” ploy to create global economic uncertainty that would cause investors worldwide to buy U.S. assets and consequently lower our interest rates. At least one Republican congressman swallowed this story, but interest rates have refused to cooperate — so much so that Trump cited the “queasy” bond market in suspending some of his tariffs. If interest rates decline as a result of the tariffs, though, it still might not be good news, since it could be a side effect of lower economic growth.
