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“We will begin charging those that make money off of us with
Trade, and they will start paying,” Trump said Tuesday on his
social media site, Truth Social. He compared his planned
creation to the Internal Revenue Service, which is the nation's
domestic tax collector.
The creation of a new agency requires an act of Congress, and
Republicans hold the majority of both the House and the Senate.
Trump, who has vowed to shrink the size of government, would be
creating a new agency to do functions already handled by
existing agencies, including the Commerce Department and the
Customs and Border Patrol, which collect duties and revenues
from other nations.
The president-elect has tapped two business titans to lead his
Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a nongovernmental
task force assigned to find ways to fire federal workers, cut
programs and slash federal regulations, all part of what he
calls his “Save America” agenda for a second term in the White
House.
Billionaire Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy
are leading the DOGE's ambitious efforts to reduce the size and
scope of the federal government.
Tariffs, with the threat of a potential 25% levy on all goods
from allies like Canada and Mexico and 60% on goods from China,
have become a benchmark of Trump’s economic agenda as he heads
into his second term.
Economists have said the cost of the tariffs will be passed on
to consumers, and are generally skeptical of them, considering
them a mostly inefficient way for governments to raise money and
promote prosperity.
Democratic lawmakers were quick to criticize the External
Revenue Service plan.
“No amount of silly rebranding will hide the fact that Trump is
planning a multi-trillion-dollar tax hike on American families
and small businesses to pay for another round of tax handouts to
the rich," Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate
Finance Committee, said in a statement.
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