Trump Faces Backlash Over False Claims Linking Tariffs to Great Depression

During a Rose Garden event, Trump inaccurately asserted that abandoning tariffs caused the Great Depression, drawing criticism from historians and economists.

Donald Trump claimed that the Great Depression resulted from the U.S. abandoning tariffs in favor of an income tax, a statement widely criticized as historically inaccurate.
Experts and historians refuted Trump's remarks, highlighting the role of the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in worsening the economic downturn by stifling international trade.
Trump used his revisionist narrative to promote a new executive order on reciprocal tariffs, part of his broader protectionist economic agenda.
Critics pointed out that the U.S. had high tariffs during the Great Depression, directly contradicting Trump's claims about the absence of such policies.
The controversy has sparked significant public and expert backlash, with commentators accusing Trump of distorting history to justify his current policy initiatives.