Former President Donald Trump on Saturday teed off on Vice President Kamala Harris’ newly unveiled economic proposals, arguing they were “communist” while vowing to implement sweeping tariffs at a campaign rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. 

Both candidates have begun stumping on economic policies with the economy at the forefront for many voters, but have heavily diverged in their economic visions for the country over the next four years. 

Mr. Trump put the onus of the “devastating inflation” in the country on Ms. Harris, arguing that she was there for every policy decision President Biden made and scoffed at her promise to lower costs immediately after taking office while also promising to do the same thing. 

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“She says she’s going to lower the cost of food and housing starting on day one,” Mr. Trump said. “But day one for Kamala was three and a half years ago, so why didn’t she do it then?”

A day before, Ms. Harris pitched proposals that included a federal ban on price gouging that would push the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to probe how corporations exploit consumers by raising prices for profit and would have the authority to impose harsh penalties on companies they say are setting prices too high. 

Other elements of her newly unveiled plan included a push to build 3 million new housing units to fight the housing crisis, $25,000 in taxpayer money to provide down-payment support to first-time homebuyers and a plan to expand the child tax credit, among others. 

Mr. Trump warned that the price controls and subsidies could further drive up inflation. 

“In her speech yesterday, Kamala went full communist. You heard that, she went full communist. She wants to destroy our country after causing catastrophic inflation,” he said. “Comrade Kamala announced that she wants to institute socialist price controls. You saw that never worked before. Never ever worked.”

He argued that while her campaign promises may attract some voters, Ms. Harris was “promising to hand out things she can’t deliver.” Instead, Mr. Trump pitched a sweeping return of his tariffs on imported goods from foreign countries. 

Earlier this week, Mr. Trump floated a 10% to 20% tariff on imported goods that sparked concern from economists who warned that doing so could harm the economy, boost inflation and generate retaliatory tariffs from foreign countries.

He floated the “Trump Reciprocal Trade Act” at the rally, which would be an “eye for an eye” style retaliatory tariff on any country that tried to impose a 100% or 200% tariff on the U.S.

Mr. Trump imposed tariffs during his first term in office on a wide variety of goods, particularly targeting imports from China. 

While Mr. Trump argued at his rally in the Keystone State that his tariffs from his first term generated “hundreds of billions of dollars,” the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, a D.C.-based think tank, pointed out in a June report that his tariffs, many of which the Biden administration has kept, increased taxes on Americans by about $80 billion. 

The Tax Foundation warned that if Mr. Trump were to follow through with the new batch of tariffs he has flaunted on the campaign trail, taxes could leap by $524 billion annually. 

“A tariff is a tax on a foreign country,” Mr. Trump said. “That’s the way it is, whether you like it,or not. A lot of people like to say, ‘Oh, it’s a tax.’ No, no, no. It’s a tax on a foreign country. It’s a tax on a country that’s ripping us off and stealing our jobs, and it’s a tax that doesn’t affect our country.”