Is Trump Bluffing About Tariffs?

It’s not a bluff, says a trade attorney: “Why doesn’t anybody else understand we’re all in for tariffs for revenue? He keeps saying it again and again.”

Good Morning!

Here are today’s highlights:

• For $1.1 million, you could buy the only grocery store in a rural Michigan town.

• His fire insurance was canceled in May, but the owner of a famous L.A. pizza shop vows to rebuild.

• Not everyone agrees with Shawn Busse that trying to make your business discoverable on AI is “a fool’s errand.”

• Some businesses on TikTok are moving to a different Chinese-owned social media app.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

President-elect Trump says he will create a new External Revenue Service to collect tariffs: “In a post on Truth Social, his social media platform, Trump said the External Revenue Service will collect revenue from tariffs starting Monday, after he is inaugurated for a second term. The structure of the new government operation was unclear from his post, although two outside advisers, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters they weren’t authorized to share publicly, suggested it could involve renaming an existing office within the Treasury Department.”

• “Trump campaigned on tariff rates as high as 20 percent on every imported good. Some estimates have projected that those could raise hundreds of billions of dollars in new revenue, although economists warn they could also reignite inflation and raise prices, particularly for low-income consumers.”

• “Critics say Trump’s announcement reflected his desire to try to disguise the fact that tariffs amount to a tax on U.S. households. Trump frequently suggests foreign countries pay the price for tariffs, but in reality importers pay the duties, and most economists say businesses pass on much of the cost by raising prices.”

• “Some supporters of Trump’s policies say a new Treasury division focused on tariff revenue could help ensure the effectiveness of his proposals. Charles Benoit, a trade attorney at the Coalition for a Prosperous America, which supports higher tariffs, said Treasury is not sufficiently focused on ensuring tariff revenue is maximized.”

• “‘Why doesn’t anybody else understand we’re all in for tariffs for revenue? He keeps saying it again and again,’ Benoit said. ‘Trump and Lutnick are clearly all in on tariffs for revenue, but most people have not adopted that paradigm yet.’” READ MORE