By Brett Rowland | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump said his tariffs on foreign imports are fueling the nation’s economic growth as he prays for a favorable U.S. Supreme Court decision.
“The TARIFFS are responsible for the GREAT USA Economic Numbers JUST ANNOUNCED…AND THEY WILL ONLY GET BETTER!” Trump wrote in a social media post on Tuesday. “Also, NO INFLATION & GREAT NATIONAL SECURITY. Pray for the U.S. Supreme Court!!!”
Peter Navarro, a top trade adviser, gave a more detailed explanation defending Trump’s use of tariffs in an op-ed published Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal.
“The tariff debate remains distorted by two opposing misconceptions: that tariffs would instantly resurrect American industry, that they would immediately crash the economy and ignite runaway inflation,” Navarro wrote. “The experience of 2025 has disproved both. The economy didn’t collapse, but neither did a manufacturing renaissance appear on demand. These outcomes should surprise no one who understands how industrial capacity is built.”
Navarro said the resurrection would take longer. He also said the import duties wouldn’t produce inflation.
“The related slogan – ‘Who pays the tariff?’ – is equally misleading. Importers remit duties at the border, but who actually pays is determined by bargaining power, not paperwork,” he wrote. “In real markets, the burden falls on whoever can’t afford to lose access to the U.S. consumer.”
The Congressional Budget Office changed some of its tariff projections after noting that foreign businesses were picking up about 5% of the cost of the tariffs through lower prices.
“We had previously projected that foreign exporters would not reduce their prices to offset increased tariff rates. We now project that foreign exporters will reduce their prices by an amount equivalent to 5% of the increase in tariff rate,” according to a CBO report from November.
A recent Goldman Sachs report found that U.S. consumers will pay 55% of the costs resulting from Trump’s tariffs, U.S. businesses will pay 22%, and foreign exporters will pay 18%. That report said that most tariffs will be passed on to American consumers as businesses adjust prices in the coming months.
In November, the Supreme Court sharply questioned Trump’s authority to impose tariffs under a 1977 law that he has used to justify the bulk of the tariffs announced on April 2, which he dubbed “Liberation Day” for U.S. trade. The cases challenging Trump’s tariff authority remain pending before the nation’s highest court.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts called the tariffs “taxes on Americans,” which he said had long been a “core power of Congress,” not the president.
Trump has said he wants to use tariffs to restore manufacturing jobs lost to lower-wage countries in decades past, shift the tax burden away from U.S. families and pay down the national debt.
Economists, businesses and some public companies have warned that tariffs will raise prices on a wide range of consumer products.