In this Aug. 5, 2014 file photo, Republican David Trott, a candidate for Michigan's 11th congressional district, stands next to his wife, Kappy, during an interview at his election night party in Troy, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

Nobody likes inflation, which is a hidden tax on consumers. Former President Donald Trump’s 2024 Republican Party platform calls for an end to inflation and quickly bringing down all prices. What voter would oppose such laudable goals?

But Trump’s proposal to impose a baseline tariff — a tax on consumers of any imported good, is fundamentally flawed and would increase inflation materially, not lower it.

As a former Republican member of Congress who served on the House Financial Services and Foreign Affairs Committees, I can attest that his contradiction makes no sense and will only hurt consumers and slow needed growth in our economy. It also would lead to recession and even a global trade war as other countries retaliate, as they surely would. Does anyone remember the Tariff Act of 1930 (“Smoot-Hawley” tariffs) and the Great Depression leading to World War II?

Here’s why Trump’s tariffs are seriously flawed as a political and economic matter and should be rejected by voters this November.

Chapter One of Trump’s platform calls for defeating inflation. Agreed. That is the job of policymakers in Congress and the Federal Reserve. The nation’s inflation rate now is the lowest since the Biden-Harris Administration inherited the battered economy from Trump.

However, Trump’s platform goes on to call for “baseline Tariffs on Foreign-made goods, [and] the Trump Reciprocal Trade Act.”

So, the Republican platform promises no inflation, but then endorses new inflationary and anti-growth tariffs on consumers!

Unless importers absorb some or all of the cost of the tariff, American consumers pay the balance when they buy any imported goods, even though they never see a tariff as a separate line item on a sales receipt like state and local sales taxes.

Tariffs are not paid by the foreign countries or their manufacturers, something Trump still doesn’t understand despite being President for four years. Tariffs are paid by U.S. companies, which pass the costs on to consumers in the form of higher prices. Thus, tariffs are a hidden consumer tax, just like inflation.

What Trump doesn’t say is that he now wants not just a 10% “universal baseline tariff,” which would be collected automatically on all imported goods, but he now wants a 20% across-the-board tariff as he recently told a rally in North Carolina. Sounds bigger, right? Double the damage to consumers and our economy.

As part of his isolationist America-First economic agenda, elaborated in Project 2025, Trump wants to “ring the economy” with tariffs, instead of the ad hoc, protectionist approach he adopted when president. Last year Trump said: “When companies come in … they should pay, automatically, let’s say a 10% tax … I do like the 10% for everybody.”  Everybody, meaning all American consumers.

With a stroke of his autocratic pen, Trump’s 10% becomes 20%… if he is elected.

And by the way, Trump wants at least a 60% tariff on all Chinese exports to the United States. The costs would mount for every American consumer.

The Tax Foundation estimates that Trump’s ill-considered tariffs could amount to a $300 billion hidden tax on the U.S. economy, leading to slower economic growth and recession. Other economists estimate Trump’s tariffs could impose an extra $1,700 annual burden on every American family.

After four years as president, Trump should understand the real impact of tariffs on consumers and our economy, but he does not. He wants to increase these inflationary consumer taxes and start a global trade war with all our trading partners, including potentially Canada and Mexico.

Without a doubt, foreign nations would retaliate in kind with their own tariffs on U.S. exports. A global trade war is in no one’s interest and would lead to recession if not a depression.

Trump should know better, but he does not. He thinks tariffs are free money, but they are not. He should not want to increase taxes on consumers — especially lower- to middle-income citizens who would be affected disproportionately — but he does want to place the burden on these Americans.

Vice President Kamala Harris understands the dangers of Trump’s baseline tariffs and the extreme financial burden they would impose on consumers and the U.S, and global economy. That is why you have not heard her promote such an extreme, dangerous economic policy, and you never will. Unlike Trump, she knows better.

David Trott of Birmingham, Mich. served as a Republican member of Congress from 2015-19.