WASHINGTON — In addition to hitting Americans with trillions of dollars in new taxes and cratering the stock market, arbitrary tariff regime offers yet another opportunity for a president who has already shown his willingness to use his office for personal gain, critics fear.
The new tariffs, which started taking effect on Saturday, already have exemptions for specific industries, establishing the precedent for corporations or even entire countries to win carve-outs for themselves.
And, government watchdogs and other experts worry, with Trump having long demonstrated a willingness to take official actions in return for private or political benefit, a vast new field of potential corruption has opened.
“There are concerns around additional graft and cronyism,” said Melinda St Louis, global trade director at Public Citizen.
Rajeev Goal, an Illinois State University economist, co-authored a 2023 finding that multilateral trade agreements help fight “public sector corruption” by creating transparent, level playing fields for buying and selling goods across borders.
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