Which American politician said the following?
Item one: “Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain. Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected. Between Walmart and China they should . . . EAT THE TARIFFS, and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!”
Item two: “After causing catastrophic inflation, Comrade Kamala announced that she wants to institute socialist price controls . . . Her plan is very dangerous because it may sound good politically . . . This is Communist; this is Marxist; this is fascist.”
If you guessed that both are statements by Donald Trump, you have broken the code on the bizarro world of the President’s second-term economic policies.
Last year he blasted Kamala Harris’s proposal for price controls on groceries. But now he is attacking Walmart for warning that it will have to raises prices in the wake of Mr. Trump’s tariffs.
Mr. Trump’s flip-flop on price controls is a rebuttal of his own previous tariff claims.
For months he’s said that foreign producers pay the full cost of tariffs. But now he’s admitting that Walmart, an American retailer, will have to eat some of the costs or pass them on to Americans.
Despite his business background, Mr. Trump doesn’t know much about retail.
Walmart’s net profit margin is below 3%, so it doesn’t have much room to absorb the higher costs caused by tariffs. Retail competition is intense, and Walmart’s longtime comparative advantage has been lower prices.
Mr. President is telling a company how to run its business, along with a vague, implicit threat of retribution.
Marxist? How would Mr. Trump react if Congress told him how much his family could charge for a Mar-a-Lago fee?
Mr. Trump is trying to duck the political fallout for his misguided tariff policy by blaming everyone else. Americans are too smart to fall for it.
