The grandson of President John F. Kennedy mentioned he would push for a invoice outlawing Trump’s tariffs on imported meals and attire as a result of the taxes on these necessities are hitting low and middle-income customers the toughest.
The 32-year-old scion of the famed Camelot political dynasty recounted assembly a younger mother procuring at Macy’s on Black Friday for brand new sneakers for her son after he grew out of a pair she had purchased for him initially of the varsity yr, simply a few months in the past.
“It’s especially hard for parents of kindergartners or first-graders who are growing every day,” Schlossberg mentioned. “It’s a regressive tax on ordinary Americans, on ordinary New Yorkers.”
Jack Schlossberg speaks on the John F. Kennedy Profile in Braveness Award ceremony on the JFK Library, Sunday, Could 4, 2025, in Boston. (AP Picture/Robert F. Bukaty)
Schlossberg, 32, who has no earlier legislative expertise, is vying with a number of different Democrats in what’s shaping up as a canine struggle 2026 major to exchange long-serving Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-New York) within the deep-blue NY-12 district that covers each the Higher West and Higher East Sides. Assemblyman Micah Lasher, a protege of Nadler, can also be thought of a frontrunner, together with Metropolis Councilman Erik Bottcher and Assemblyman Alex Bores.
The Democratic hopeful stresses that he broadly opposes Trump’s tariffs, which consultants estimate will price the common household $2,400 a yr, and believes Congress ought to vote to retake its congressional authority to levy them on imported items. The Supreme Courtroom is predicted to rule quickly on a problem to the levies.
However Schlossberg sees a focused method to meals and clothes tariffs as a possible opening that might win the help of some Republicans and even Trump loyalists.
“We don’t necessarily expect Republicans to break with the president on everything, but this is very specific,” he mentioned. “We’re already seeing the fracturing of his MAGA base on some issues. People are really feeling it.”
Trump not too long ago mentioned he would roll again tariffs on a brief record of grocery objects, together with beef, espresso and bananas, saying he wished to cushion American customers from rising costs. However the president didn’t clarify how these merchandise have been recognized and why the identical precept wouldn’t apply to different staple merchandise.
“He’s already shown that this could be a weak point for him,” Schlossberg mentioned.
Trump has spent most of his first yr in workplace sending customers and companies on a chaotic roller-coaster journey of tariffs on imported items from rivals like China and shut allies like Canada, the European Union and Mexico.
The president has supplied a laundry record of rationales for the taxes, starting from geopolitical targets to incentivizing producers to construct factories within the U.S.
Trump claims overseas governments or firms pay the tariffs however consultants say they’re paid by American companies and handed on to American customers on the money register.
