Former U.S. Treasury Secretary criticizes Trump for abusing emergency powers to impose tariffs

[Former U.S. Treasury Secretary criticizes Trump for abusing emergency powers to impose tariffs] Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Summers stated that Trump's use of emergency powers to impose tariffs “is problematic.” Summers pointed out in an interview that Trump's imposition of import tariffs “does not reflect any real special event (like 9/11 or a big dump of the dollar).” More broadly, if this is indeed the right course of action, the president should be able to persuade Congress and push it forward in a direct manner, rather than circumventing it. Summers said, “If we define 'state of emergency' as the president being concerned about the current economic situation and wanting to use tariffs as a tool, then under our democratic tradition, that is quite problematic.” Moreover, aside from the legal aspects, the tariffs implemented by Trump during his second term are not appropriate measures to solve the long-term decline of U.S. manufacturing, the fiscal deficit, or external borrowing issues. “If we want to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign capital imports, the right measures should be to cut the budget deficit and increase domestic savings levels.” ( Jin10 )