Posted on 04/03/2025 4:24:48 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
❓What Happened: Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is pushing the GOP to reembrace unpopular globalist economic policies, is criticizing President Donald J. Trump’s imposition of extensive global tariffs, claiming they represent the largest peacetime tax increase in U.S. history.
👥 Who’s Involved: Mike Pence, Donald Trump, and America First conservatives, including Trump’s trade advisor Peter Navarro.
📍 Where & When: Pence posted criticism to X (formerly Twitter) Wednesday evening following President Trump’s “Liberation Day” event.
💬 Key Quote: “The Trump Tariff Tax is the largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history,” claims Pence.
⚠️ Impact: Critics like Pence claim the tariffs could cost American families over $3,500 per year, destroy jobs, and weaken conservative political standing. Additionally, the Pence-led Advancing American Freedom PAC contends the tariffs will counteract the benefits of previous tax cuts.
Former Vice President Mike Pence publicly criticized President J. Donald Trump’s imposition of a 10 percent blanket global tariff and additional targeted tariffs in response to pre-existing foreign trade barriers, claiming the new import duties will result in significant economic burdens for American families. Additionally, in a Wednesday night post on X (formerly Twitter), Pence asserted the tariffs represent the most substantial peacetime tax increase in U.S. history.
“The Trump Tariff Tax is the largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history,” Pence claimed, adding: “These Tariffs are nearly 10x the size of those imposed during the Trump-Pence Administration and will cost American families over $3,500 per year.” Attached to Pence’s X post was a screenshot of anti-Trump tariff talking points pushed by his Advancing American Freedom PAC.
Advancing American Freedom PAC’s claim that the tariffs will cost American families over $3,500 per year is based on a Goldman Sachs estimate, which pegs the total tariff revenue at around $300 billion annually. However, Pence and his Advancing American Freedom PAC appear to assume that American families will bear the bulk of the tax burden imposed by the tariffs—a fairly unlikely scenario—and not foreign companies attempting to maintain their market share in the United States.
Meanwhile, Pence’s assertion that Trump’s tariffs are “the largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history” is on equally shaky ground. While tariffs are technically taxes, they are not entirely borne by Americans, with at least part of the import duty paid by foreign companies. Additionally, Advancing American Freedom PAC states that Trump’s tariffs are the highest imposed since the 1800s, claiming the imposed rate is higher than the Smoot-Hawley tariffs from the Great Depression.
The first claim is dubious at best, though the assertion that the Trump tariff rate is higher than those imposed under Smoot-Hawley is patently false. Pence and Advancing American Freedom PAC are playing fast and loose with what they consider the average tariff rate to make the claim. The Smoot-Hawley tariffs imposed a 59.1 percent rate on dutiable goods, though around 63 percent of foreign imports were not considered dutiable under the law. This places the average tariff rate under Smoot-Hawley at just under 20 percent.
President Trump’s tariffs include a blanket 10 percent tariff on all imports with additional target tariffs on specific countries with pre-existing trade barriers against American exports. Estimates regarding the average rate range from around 15 percent to 20 percent, though the lower side of the range appears more likely.
Because globalists have tried for the last 50 or more years to export all manufacturing offshore.
Who is this Mike pence do you speak of? I vaguely remember person and I think his name could have been Benedict Pence.
Other than his wife, does anyone care what Pence thinks?
These globalists won’t be happy until we’re entirely dependent on foreign goods and our manufacturing base goes completely dark. I suspect our side will take a political hit for this, but I think everyone knows that an economic correction has to be made now. They’ll thank Trump in private for doing this while trashing him publicly.
Remember when Dick Gephardt ran for president in 1988? He put out this “Hyundai” campaign ad criticizing the South Korean government for putting tariffs and taxes on Chrysler cars so that they cost four times the amount there than in America. Gephardt was no fan of free trade and neither were many Democrats at that time.
Sorry for the bad video quality, but what Gephardt is saying in this one minute ad almost forty years ago echoes the sentiments of President Trump today. The voters Gephardt was appealing to were white blue collar workers, the same people who now largely support Donald Trump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiTg7zcNgP0
I just watched a 5 minute clip of Nancy Pelosi making an impassioned speech in favor of tariffs on China...this was from 1995.
Trump has no choice but to be right. If he’s wrong, it will not be good.
Amazing how in the space of just thirty years the two parties have basically switched economic positions. To be fair Trump has been talking about tariffs and trade issues since the 1980’s, but he was a Democrat then. Democrats were certainly not for free trade when Trump was one of them!
Pence is the type of Politician that has got us into this mess.
Decades of the types like Pence.
Who gives a flying fig what that traitorous IDIOT thinks?
Not a Pence fan……..but the tariffs are truly making a bloodbath in the next few days. Businesses can adapt, but not in one day. The system will break.
The tariffs will be modified or halted tomorrow.
The 20% tax overnite on imported goods that are on boats need to be unloaded on or before April 9th The goods on the ship that arrives on the 10th will need to pay an extra 20% when unloaded. Many small businesses have goods worth big bucks on board that cannot pay in April 11th.
It simply isn’t possible for so many involved. Not the customer, not the provider, not the banks financing the purchases, not the shipping company..and so many others.
When President Trump makes the demoncRATS and RINOs whine and cry, you know that President Trump is RIGHT.
“30 Pences of Silver”
Wonder if he has any ties to the fraud and $ laundering DOGE is uncovering? 🤔
Pence didn’t complain about President Trump’s tariffs or Team Biden keeping them in place.
He is an attention hound and the funny thing is the media is pretty much ignoring him.
Think again if you think President Trump is going to blink.
Because so many are incompetent? / rhetorical question
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