Trump torn apart by expert for his promise to fix economy: 'Create massive price shock'

Former President Donald Trump has based much of his campaign for re-election on the current state of inflation, and promises that prices will be stable if he gets back in power — but not so, argued Catherine Rampell for The Washington Post.

In fact, she said, Trump's policies are part of how inflation got as bad as he claims it is.

This comes amid other analyses making similar findings.

"First, a caveat. Contrary to popular perception, presidents do not actually control economic conditions, whether that’s inflation, jobs or anything else," she wrote.

"Presidents generally get too much credit when things are good and too much blame when things are bad. Their policy choices mostly affect things only around the edges, especially in the short term."

For instance, she wrote, inflation the U.S. experienced was actually a worldwide phenomenon brought about by supply chain issues and global energy shocks — President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act might have some impact on inflation by boosting energy production, but not for years.

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Trump's ideas, however, are almost all inflationary. And we know this, Rampell wrote, because Trump already enacted these kinds of policies, to the same effect.

"Trump ... levied all those dang tariffs in the first place. Further, he has announced plans to ramp up his trade wars with a worldwide 10 percent tariff. This would not only alienate all our allies, it would also create a massive price shock for U.S. consumers," wrote Rampell.

"Both during and before the pandemic, Trump also worked to ratchet down immigration — especially legal, work-authorized immigration. As the economy exited the pandemic, Trump policies slowing down immigration processing worsenedlaborshortages, which probably contributed to inflation."

Worse still, Rampell wrote, Trump tried to erode the independence of the Federal Reserve, leaning heavily on Chairman Jerome Powell to keep rates low, even threatening to fire him over rate hikes. He ultimately didn't manage to affect Fed policy much, but stands to try all over again if given power.

"You might not be happy about how prices look so far in the Biden presidency," concluded Rampell. "But given Trump’s instincts and past choices, be assured it could be so much worse."