Trump is proposing eliminating income taxes and replacing them with tariffs
In 2022, the federal income raised about $2.6 trillion while import tariffs raised about $0.1 trillion. So the proposal is effectively bullshit.
That doesn’t explain to me how a system works with tariffs and no income tax? Presumably it means that everything becomes much more expensive because the government is collecting a Huge sales tax essentially. Right? So
It is a sales tax on imported goods and services. Imports are a small portion of US spending (roughly 16 to 17 % of GDP).Given the size of the tariffs needed to try to increase revenue by a factor 2600%, US demand for imports would fall dramatically. So the revenue target would be impossible to meet.
It would essentially put an end to almost all imports to the US, thereby also putting an end to any revenue it would raise. Simultaneously, it would end most US exports, as other countries would respond in kind with tarriffs on US goods and services.
This would leave the US government without revenue, and with massive unemployment due to lost export markets.
Either the government could slash spending to try to prevent inflation consequent to the huge drop in tax revenue; or they (via the Fed) could hike interest rates sky high, causing even more unemployment; or they could continue to spend despite the lack of both growth and revenue, causing hyperinflation.
All of that would make the Great Depression look like a fun time.
This idea is so massively harmful to Anerican interests that it must have originated in a Russian troll-farm. It would do almost as much damage to the USA as a Russian strategic nuclear attack, but with the advantage (from Russia's point of view) that it wouldn't trigger a retaliatory response.