U.S. President Donald Trump stands, ahead of signing an executive order on tariffs, in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 2, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis
President Donald Trump got a thorough roasting on social media Wednesday after claiming that a lack of tariffs caused the country to spiral into the Great Depression in 1929.
Trump made the remarks during a Rose Garden appearance touting his "liberation day" tariffs as the hand-picked audience that included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Michigan autoworkers applauded. Trump said he would use the occasion to sign a “historic executive order instituting reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world.”
Trump then began giving a history lesson of sorts.
"In 1913, for reasons unknown to mankind, they established the income tax so that citizens rather than foreign countries would start paying the money necessary to run our government," Trump said. "Then, in 1929, it all came to a very abrupt end with the Great Depression, and it would have never happened if they had stayed with the tariff policy; it would have been a much different story. They tried to bring back tariffs to save our country, but it was gone. It was gone. It was too late. Nothing could have been done."
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Trump continued, "It took years and years to get out of that depression, far longer than even FDR — had that office right over there for a long period of time. The ramp system, it's rather intricate, was built because of him. And every time you walk up, you think of him. And he did a great job in many ways — but it lasted long beyond his terms, as you know. But it's not too late any longer, and we're going to start being smart, and we're going to start being very wealthy again."
On Bluesky, columnist Brian J. Karem posted, "NOW: According to Trump the Great Depression would have never happened if we had tariffs in 1929. WE DID! AND worse, President Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act into law in 1930, which raised import duties by an average of 20%. International trade suffered."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, wrote, "Trump just claimed the Great Depression wouldn't have happened if we still had tariffs. I..."
"Trump claims lack of tariffs caused the Great Depression. All the free-trader economists' heads are going to explode," posted Bloomberg's Steven T. Dennis, while The Financial Times' Alan Beattie posted, "Trump thinks that cutting tariffs caused the Great Depression. I mean it's a view I guess."
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Watch the clip below via CNN.