Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has focused his economic agenda on foreign trade, U.S. manufacturing and targeted tax reductions as he seeks to return to the White House after serving as president from 2017-2021.
Voters have increasingly become concerned about the economy. A recent Gallup poll showed that 43% of voters said economic issues were their top concern, up from 36% in April.
Trump’s Economic Proposals
Tariffs
Trump has proposed enacting tariffs on goods made in foreign countries, potentially adding costs to imported products. China, where the former president has said he would impose tariffs as high as 60% on goods made in that country, is especially targeted by the proposal.
He’s proposed a tariff of between 10% and 20% on goods made in other countries.
Trump has also targeted certain industries. He has proposed tariffs on automakers that use plants in Mexico to make cars for sale in the U.S.; Trump said such tariffs could be as high as 2,000%. The goal, he said, is to relocate more manufacturing facilities to the U.S.
Taxes
Trump has pledged to renew most of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which includes several provisions set to expire at the end of 2025. Trump has pledged to make most of those provisions permanent, including a higher level for the personal standard deductions and lower taxes in most brackets.
One of the TCJA provisions that Trump has talked about repealing is the limitations that the law imposes on deductions for state and local taxes (SALT) on federal income tax.
Trump has proposed several new targeted tax breaks, including an exemption on taxes on both overtime and tipped income. The former president has also proposed excluding Social Security payments from income taxes.
Trump’s latest proposal would also exempt interest payments on car loans from taxes.
His campaign has also proposed expanding the Child Tax Credit to $5,000 per child from $2,000.
Trump has proposed that companies that make products in the U.S. could have a lower tax rate of 15%, compared with the current corporate tax rate of 21%.
Housing
Trump has proposed opening large tracts of federal land for housing development. The government owns more than a quarter of the land in the United States, though most of it is inhospitable or is being used for national parks, wildlife refuges or military bases.
He has also proposed deporting millions of immigrants, in part to solve the nation’s persistent housing shortage.
