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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 eliminate income taxes and replace them with tariffs — a central part of his plan to largely overhaul the U.S. tax system.

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

Trump has floated several times in the past the idea of ​​eliminating income taxes, including on tips, overtime and Social Security benefits, and renewing his 2017 tax cuts, which expire next year.

To offset the revenue the US government earns from income taxes – of which personal income taxes alone generate $5 trillion a year – he has proposed sweeping 20% ​​tariffs on imports from abroad.

However, experts have warned that tariffs — which generate only about 2% of federal revenue annually — are unlikely to make up for the shortfall.

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

Still, Trump has insisted the concept could work.

“When we were a smart country, in the 1890s… the country was relatively the richest it had ever been,” he said earlier in October. “It had all the rates. It had no income tax.”

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

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