Moore, a Heritage Foundation economist, explained the import taxes have directly increased costs for U.S. businesses and consumers by “clobbering” medium-sized manufacturers. He said he noticed an article in the Wall Street Journal that the single fastest growth in commodity prices right now is coffee.
“Well, guess what? We put a 50% tariff on coffee,” Moore said. “So, yeah, the coffee price went up.”
“The prophets of doom were, once again, completely wrong,” Moore said. “The Biden economists who said Trump would destroy the economy have all been contradicted by real world events.”
However, Moore credits this to other parts of the Trump agenda—energy expansion, deregulation, and tax cuts—calling them “net positive” and arguing they outweighed the drag from tariffs. When pressed on whether tariffs were worth the economic hit, Moore answered simply: “No.”
He framed his break on trade as a targeted economic correction, not a political departure.
“I’m a big fan of Donald Trump,” he said, while still labeling tariffs a costly mistake.
Tariffs weren’t the only red flag Moore raised. Asked about Trump’s increasingly direct interventions in pricing, Moore hesitated, then acknowledged concern.
Does that kind of intervention worry Moore, a famously libertarian economist?
“A little bit, yeah,” he said. “That’s not the way markets are supposed to work.”
Moore made clear that price declarations are not part of traditional conservative economic philosophy. He emphasized that predictable policy—not ad hoc deals—is what gives businesses confidence to invest.
“The best policy is always to have a system that benefits everyone,” he said. “It shouldn’t pick winners and losers.”
