Leading economists reacted with alarm after President Donald Trump announced sweeping new tariffs on U.S. trading partners, with some projecting potential economic losses of up to $20 trillion.
What Happened: “Monstrously destructive, incoherent, ill-informed tariffs based on fabrications,” economist Justin Wolfers wrote Wednesday on X, calling the move “bigger than Smoot-Hawley” and warning it would “hurt working Americans more than anyone else.” Wolfers referred to the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, signed by former President Herbert Hoover, which raised import duties to protect U.S. farmers and businesses but worsened the Great Depression.
