Trump dismisses economists’ concerns about new tariffs

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday defended his pledge to impose stiff tariffs on imports, dismissing some economists’ concerns that his vision would plunge the nation into a trade war with China, threaten millions of American jobs, force consumers to pay more and worsen inflation.

During an appearance at the Economic Club of Chicago, Mr. Trump shrugged off studies that found his tax and spending plan would add billions to the national debt and that the revenue raised through his proposed tariffs would be a drop in the bucket by comparison — not coming close to covering the costs of his policy plans or offsetting annual federal deficits.

“It must be hard for you to spend 25 years about tariffs as negative and then have somebody explain to you that you are totally wrong,” Mr. Trump said after the moderator, John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, challenged his tariff plan.