Former US Treasury Secretary Criticizes Trump for Abusing Emergency Powers to Impose Tariffs

Mr. Summers, the former Treasury secretary, said Mr. Trump's use of emergency powers to impose tariffs was "problematic," noting in an interview that the circumstances in which Mr. Trump imposed import tariffs "do not reflect some truly extraordinary event [like 9/11 or the dollar collapse]." More broadly, if that is indeed the right thing to do, the president should be able to persuade Congress and move forward in a direct way, rather than taking a detour. "Defining an'emergency 'as a president who is concerned about the state of the economy and wants to use tariffs as a tool is quite problematic in our democratic tradition," Mr. Summers said. Moreover, legal aspects aside, the tariffs imposed by Trump in his second term are not an appropriate solution to America's long-term manufacturing recession, fiscal deficits, or external borrowing problems. "To reduce America's dependence on foreign capital imports, the right thing to do would be to reduce the budget deficit and increase domestic savings."