Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal.
Editor:
You report that shaky economic data are prompting White House officials to change their messaging on the economy (“Trump’s Team Hones Message on Economy: Just Wait Until 2026,” October 6). Their new mantra (in your words) is “just wait until next year” when, allegedly, “data will begin to improve in the first quarter of 2026.”
Americans – and U.S. Supreme Court justices especially – should note that this new White House stance fits uneasily with its claim that the IEEPA tariffs have already raked in so much additional wealth for Americans that a Court ruling against the tariffs would be (in the words of Treasury secretary Scott Bessent) “terrible for the Treasury.” If we Americans must wait until next year before we begin to enjoy the benefits of the tariffs, how costly can it really be for Treasury to have to refund, or forego, the revenues that it has reaped to date on what the White House now says have so far been only relatively modest gains?
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
