A top House Democrat on Wednesday accused President Donald Trump of using tariffs as a "tool for grift and self-enrichment," pointing to what he says are suspicious import-tax exemptions for industries whose leaders have curried Trump's favor with gifts and donations.
"You took care to cut lots of sweetheart deals with corporations and industries that won carve-outs from your tariffs when you saw you could get something good in return," Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told Trump in a fiery letter obtained first by CNBC.
Raskin, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee and the former top Democrat on the House oversight committee, highlighted three such tariff carve-outs — for Brazilian meat, diamonds and smartphones — that he says "make little to no sense" under the criteria set by the Trump administration.
"They do, however, make sense when factoring in the now world famous Trump Tariff Discount," Raskin wrote, coining a term to describe the president's alleged willingness to cut breaks for his allies and benefactors "when the price is right."
The letter asks Trump to hand over multiple categories of records spanning his second term, including communications between the White House and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, or USTR, related to any form of tariff relief for more than a dozen industries.