"Tariffs 2024 on the [Trump] campaign trail was like build a wall 2016," Kellyanne Conway, President Donald Trump's senior counsel during his first term in office, said Wednesday. "I don’t know why anybody’s surprised that he went ahead with tariffs."
Speaking at BNY's Insite conference at National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington, Conway said that "every honest and transparent secretary of Treasury, from Alexander Hamilton to Scott Bessent, would acknowledge that tariffs serve two primary purposes" — to raise revenue and "protect vital interests."
Tariffs, she said, are also a "negotiating tool.”
Economic critics and skeptics "have admitted there’s a ton of revenue that’s been raised through these tariffs," said Conway, the pollster who served as senior counselor to Trump from 2017 to 2020.
In a tentative estimate released Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the tariff changes implemented through executive action between January 6 and May 13 would reduce the federal deficit by $2.8 trillion over the next decade.
The budget watchdog also projected an average 0.4 percentage point rise in annual inflation in 2025 and 2026 and a decline in economic output due to the tariffs.
What has helped Trump during his second term? "He had the job before, so he understands the job," Conway said. "He has a better relationship with the Congress this time, better relationship with CEOs."
As to the Trump administration's agenda, "we’re looking at deregulation, energy independence, responsible development and dominance, the tax cuts and jobs act [renewals or extension], tariffs and trade," Conway said. “We have a president who wants us to be energy dominant.”
Jason Granet, BNY's chief investment officer, agreed that the administration has "been reasonably clear" that its priorities include tariffs, taxes and deregulation.
"We're in the middle of this [tax bill] reconciliation period," Granet said. "The next month is huge," he continued, with job numbers due out on Friday also a Federal Reserve Board meeting coming up.
In the bigger picture, Trump is talking about deregulation not just for the financial industry, but "across a lot of society," Granet said.
Pictured: Kellyanne Conway at BNY Insite. Credit: Melanie Waddell/Touchpoint Markets
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