Trump campaigns in Savannah, pledging higher tariffs and lower corporate tax rate

Caption

Trump waits to take to the podium as “God Bless the U.S.A.” by Lee Greenwood plays.

Credit: Benjamin Payne / GPB News

Former President Donald Trump held a rally in Savannah on Tuesday, marking his first campaign appearance in Georgia since early August.

Speaking downtown at the Johnny Mercer Theatre, Trump began by overstating the size of the crowd, falsely saying that 5,000 or 6,000 people were in attendance; in fact, the venue was filled to its capacity of about 2,500 people.

His campaign billed the event as one that would focus on manufacturing and the tax code, but his remarks — which lasted 1 hour and 21 minutes — spanned a wide array of topics, including crime, immigration and the two assassination attempts made against him.

“This is a speech on economic development, but this is a big part of economic development: We can't have factories being built where you have criminals walking down the street with the worst weapons that you've ever seen, with machine guns and everything else,” Trump said. “We can't have it. We have to have a safe country because if you don't have a safe country, everything I talk about today, you can reduce very substantially.”

He pledged to usher in a “manufacturing renaissance” by raising tariffs on imported goods and by lowering the corporate tax rate from 21% to 15% for companies that make their products solely in the U.S.

“With a world-class port and a world-class workforce, this city will soon become one of the premier export hubs anywhere on Earth, tripling and quadrupling traffic as your power will lead an American manufacturing boom,” Trump said of Savannah.

Many economic analyses have found that the tariffs on Chinese imports which Trump began during his first term — and which have largely continued under President Joe Biden — have hurt the U.S. economy, as foreign countries institute retaliatory tariffs and as importers pass the costs of tariffs onto consumers.

The nonpartisan Tax Foundation estimated that these “trade war” tariffs have directly increased taxes by $200 to $300 per U.S. household and have led to lower incomes and a loss in consumer choice. The group also projected that Trump's proposed tariff hikes would further burden households and lower GDP by at least 0.8% and employment by 684,000 full-time equivalent jobs.

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which Trump signed into law, lowered the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, cut income tax rates, and weakened the estate tax.

Certain provisions of the law are set to expire in 2025, but Trump has said that he wishes to make them permanent. An extension would increase the federal deficit by $4 trillion through 2034, according to a May analysis by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Budget.

At his Savannah rally, Trump criticized the proliferation of electric vehicles in the U.S. and falsely claimed that the Biden administration had implemented an “electric mandate” requiring that automakers build only electric vehicles.

Trump did not mention Hyundai's massive $7.6 billion electric vehicle and battery plant being built in nearby Bryan County, which is the largest economic development project in Georgia history and is scheduled to begin vehicle production between October and December.

He vowed to appoint a “manufacturing ambassador” tasked with convincing foreign companies to “pack up” and build factories in the U.S.

“For years, we watched other countries steal our jobs,” Trump said. “Now, we are going to be going after their jobs and bringing them back to America where they belong and where, frankly, they want to be.”

Several Republican elected officials spoke before Trump took the stage, including Georgia U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Buddy Carter, Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and former Georgia U.S. Sen. David Perdue.

“He'll fix the border again,” Perdue said. “He'll make us energy-independent again. He'll rebuild the military again. He'll stand up to China and Russia again. I'm proud to be working for this man. Okay: sometimes he doesn't say exactly what you or I might want to hear. But you know what? It comes from the heart and people listen.”

Trump's visit to Savannah came one month after Vice President Kamala Harris held a campaign rally in the city, drawing a capacity crowd of about 7,500 people to Enmarket Arena.