One week after voters punished Republicans over rising prices in the midterm elections, President Donald Trump's White House signaled it would stay the course on tariffs, even as his former top economic advisor warned that Americans are footing the bill.
Jim Goyer, Trump's director of White House Office of Public Liaison, defended tariffs as a tool to rebuild U.S. manufacturing, secure supply chains and protect national security during an address Tuesday at the B20 summit, a gathering of global business leaders in Washington hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
"And we are just getting started," Goyer said. "Our ambition is to continue this pace for the remainder of the president's term in office."
But Gary Cohn, who served as Trump's chief economic advisor during his first administration, offered a sharply different assessment during an onstage interview later Tuesday.
"Tariffs are a consumption tax on the U.S. consumer," Cohn said, arguing that the duties are raising prices and forcing Americans to reconsider purchases.