By Steve Holland and Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump on Thursday acknowledged that U.S. consumers are paying more for goods because of the tariffs he has set, a shift in rhetoric even as he insisted that the policy has benefited Americans overall.
Trump, who has used tariffs as a diplomatic and economic cudgel since coming into office, long has insisted that foreign nations are the ones putting money into U.S. coffers because of the levies. Economists say tariffs are paid by the consumers of the goods themselves.
U.S. Supreme Court justices raised doubts on Wednesday over the legality of Trump’s tariffs in a case that has broad implications for how Trump governs. The president, who has warned that a decision stripping him of the right to set tariffs would be a disaster, said on Thursday his administration would need a Plan B of sorts if the court’s ruling went that way.
During a back and forth with journalists in the Oval Office about the issue, a reporter noted that Chief Justice John Roberts had asserted that tariffs were actually taxes paid by Americans.
Asked if he agreed that Americans were paying the tariffs, Trump said: “No, I don’t agree. I think that they might be paying something. But when you take the overall impact, the Americans are gaining tremendously.”
For months Trump has repeatedly emphasized his view that other countries pay the tariffs. He has set levies on imports from China, Canada, the European Union and others around the world.
Removing tariffs from his proverbial tool box would take away an instrument that Trump says he has used to end conflicts between other countries and bring economic fairness to the U.S., which faces tariffs put in place by its trading partners as well.
“I think it’d be devastating for our country, but I also think that we’ll have to develop a ‘game two’ plan. We’ll see what happens,” Trump said about a potential Supreme Court ruling against him. “I hope that we win. I can’t imagine that anybody would do that kind of devastation to our country.”
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Jeff Mason; additional reporting by Katharine Jackson and Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Chris Reese and Chizu Nomiyama )
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