Bernd Debusmann Jr.
Reporting from Michigan

image source, EPA

One of the most newsworthy parts of Donald Trump’s interview with Joe Rogan on Friday was his plan to end income taxes and replace them with tariffs; this was a central part of his plan to massively overhaul the US tax system.

“We will not allow the enemy to come in and take our jobs, our factories, our workers and our families unless they pay a huge price,” he told Rogan. “And the biggest cost is tariffs.”

Trump already came up with the idea He has proposed eliminating income taxes several times in the past, including on tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits, as well as renewing the 2017 tax cuts that expire next year.

He has proposed sweeping 20% ​​tariffs on imports from abroad to offset the U.S. government’s revenue from income taxes, where personal income taxes alone account for $5 trillion a year.

But experts have warned that tariffs, which provide only 2 percent of federal revenue each year, won’t close the gap.

The nonpartisan Tax Foundation, for example, says Trump’s overall tax plan could actually increase the federal deficit by nearly $3 trillion over 10 years.

Still, Trump insisted the concept could work.

“When we became a wise country in the 1890s… that was the richest time the country had ever been, relatively speaking,” he said in early October. “It had all the tariffs. There was no income tax.”

However, if he wins, it is unclear when that will happen.

Over the weekend, Trump adviser Jason Miller told reporters that eliminating income taxes was an “aspirational” goal and that the initial focus would be on extending the 2017 tax cuts as well as other targeted tax cuts.