How much would former President Donald Trump's proposed 10 percent tariff plan actually cost the average
American household? The wave of
tariffs Trump enacted when he was last president caused chaos , but there are many complexities that muddy this somewhat. However, MSNBC's Chris Hayes took an educated and simple guess at just how badly the country would be hit in the pocketbook under Trump's second-term plans. "We don't know exactly how much everything would cost," said Hayes, but "just add 10 percent on the back of the napkin. Here's the cost of living under the Trump Tax." ALSO READ: ‘Don't have enough’: Wealthy Trump allies balk at helping Donald pay legal bills "Start with groceries," he said. "A dozen eggs cost about $3. Once you apply the Trump Tax, that is up to $3.30, with the U.S. importing over 4 million eggs a year, but cost consumers over $1.2 million. If you like oranges, they currently go for about $1.53 per pound. With the Trump Tax, that would be $1.68 per pound, which would cost American consumers almost $71 million for the nearly half a billion pounds of the import. Bananas. We don't really grow them in the U.S., do we? They average about $.63 per pound and going up to $.69 per pound with the Trump Tax, thanks to the U.S. importing more than 10 million pounds per year, that could cost Americans at $609 million and that's a $609 million tax on American consumers. Then there's tomatoes. They go for about $2.13 per pound. Apply the 10 percent Trump Tax. They would be $2.34 per pound, potentially costing Americans $3.5 million thanks to the 6.8 million pounds we import per year. If you are spending $1,200 on groceries, add another $120 to the bill. That's more than the peak of inflation in 2022, which topped off at 9 percent. This is 10 percent." Groceries are just the start, he continued. "How about the refrigerator?" said Hayes. "You need to keep the groceries fresh. The average cost of a new fridge is about $1,300. With the Trump Tax, that could go up to $1,430, costing Americans $1.95 billion for the 15 million refrigerators that we import. Again, $1.95 billion of new taxes. What about the car that you need to drive to the grocery store? On average, a new car costs about $48,808 today. With Trump Tax, it costs $53,684, with Americans potentially taking a $66.3 billion hit across the board on the 13 million cars we import. That's not including the 50 percent tariff which would make it another $25,000. Even the
smartphone in your pocket cost on average about $940 right now. With Trump Tax, it can go up to $1,034, with Americans potentially paying an extra $13.2 billion for the nearly 141 million smartphones that we import per year." "Everyone hates when you have to pay more for things," he added. "Inflation is one of the biggest liabilities for a sitting president. Yet here is Donald Trump, in the Year of our Lord 2024, running against President Biden, promising to make things more expensive for every American." Watch the video below or click here. Chris Hayes breaks down "Trump Tax" www.youtube.com Former President Donald Trump's sprawling network of ostensibly independent political groups raising money for him, much of it in service of paying legal expenses , seems to walk right up to the line of
BREAKING the law, former prosecutor Kristy Greenberg told MSNBC's Alex Wagner — and may in fact cross it. "Kristy, how is this legal?" asked Wagner. "How can he keep saying this one thing and doing another?" "Well, I think the big question here will be looking behind all of this as to who is coordinating it," said Greenberg. "If
Donald Trump is coordinating between his campaign and these PACs that are supposed to be third parties and independent — the Save America PAC is independent, even though he directs it, independent third-party — if there is sufficient coordination, you could prove that, then maybe you would have something to say these expenditures are not purely personal, these are really campaign contributions. And therefore they should be subject to the limits of $5,000 that campaign contributions are subject to." ALSO READ: ‘Don't have enough’: Wealthy Trump allies balk at helping Donald pay legal bills What it looks like, Greenberg went on, is that Trump and his allies are "just trying to do an end-run around these various regulations, and it seems so transparent." "[Special counsel] Jack Smith ... had served some subpoenas in connection with that nonexistent, as it turns out,
election defense fund," Greenberg said. "He served some subpoenas and then he withdrew them and it was unclear why, because that seemed like such a clear-cut fraud. I questioned why that happened. Perhaps it was optics. Perhaps he thought like he had such strong cases, the January 6 case and the national security case, that he didn't want to seem as though he was trying to drain Trump of the ability to legally defend against those cases. Hard to say. But I questioned it at that time because that seemed like such a clear wire fraud case that it seemed like it should be looked into, but maybe they just had limited resources and didn't like the optics of it." "But I agree with you, this raises a lot of questions," she added. "Someone, somewhere, even if not the special counsel's office, because they are pretty busy — some prosecutors should be looking into this." Watch the video below or at the link. Kristy Greenberg on the legality of Trump's PACs www.youtube.com CONTINUE READING Show less North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson had yet another group of extremist comments unveiled — this time about legendary
Singer Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. According to The Root, "During a series of rants spanning multiple years, Robinson —who is Black —insulted Beyoncé’s singing abilities, called her a 'skank,' and said she was teaching 'young
Women how to be hyper-sexual w----s.'" For example, in 2017, Robinson posted to
Facebook, “Person; Beyoncé is a role model!” Me; “The only person that butt shakin’, devil worshipping, skank is a role model to is people who want a fast track to Hell.” This is on top of previous reporting that he referred to her
music as sounding like " Satanic chants ." ALSO READ: ‘Don't have enough’: Wealthy Trump allies balk at helping Donald pay legal bills These revelations come at a moment when Beyoncé herself has found herself at the center of some national controversy , having written a country music inspired album known as Cowboy Carter, and some country radio stations refusing to play singles off of it because of her race. Robinson, who is challenging
Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein for the governorship of North Carolina, has been put under the spotlight for a number of bizarre and offensive comments throughout the years. Among other things, he has referred to school
shooting survivors as "prosti-tots," pushed QAnon and "lizard people" conspiracy theories, questioned the
Holocaust, and suggested American politics was better in the era when women couldn't vote . CONTINUE READING Show less Matt Schlapp, who heads the American Conservative Union, reportedly paid nearly a half-million-dollar settlement to make a
Sexual Assault accusation go away,
CNN reported. Schlapp paid his accuser 40-year-old Carlton Huffman $480,000 by tapping into an insurance policy, a source close to the matter told the network. On Tuesday, Huffman said he decided to drop the lawsuit against Schlapp claiming it was a "misunderstanding ." ALSO READ: ‘Don't have enough’: Wealthy Trump allies balk at helping Donald pay legal bills “The claims made in my lawsuits were the result of a complete misunderstanding, and I regret that the lawsuit caused pain to the Schlapp family,” Huffman said. “The Schlapps have advised that the statements made about me were the result of a misunderstanding, which was regrettable." CNN's reporting that Schlapp paid a significant sum to Huffman screams of contradiction. For Huffman himself added in the same statement: "Neither the Schlapps nor the ACU paid me anything to dismiss my claims against them.” CNN cited multiple sources privy to the allegations lodged by Huffman that there was in fact a financial settlement completed via an insurance company. When the network reached Huffman, he didn't deny the monies made through an insurance policy, saying only, “I am only legally allowed to say five words, and that is ‘We have resolved our differences.’ Those are the only five words that I’m legally allowed to say.” Huffman, who earned a rep as a staple in North Carolina GOP politics, was suing both Matt Schlapp and his wife Mercedes for $9.4 million in damages for sexual battery and defamation. He originally accused Schlapp of “aggressively fondling” his “genital area in a sustained fashion” while he drove Schlapp back to his hotel from a bar while working a campaign event for failed candidate Herschel Walker. “I’m not backing away,” Huffman said last year. “I’m not going to drop this. Matt Schlapp did what he did, and he needs to be held accountable.” After the squashing of the lawsuit, Schlapp publicly waved his clean hands, stating: “From the beginning, I asserted my innocence." "Our family was attacked, especially by a left-wing media that is focused on the destruction of conservatives regardless of the truth and the facts," he then added. CONTINUE READING Show less