Top Economic Issues Donald Trump Will Focus on After Winning the 2024 Election

Donald Trump

Top Economic Issues Donald Trump Will Focus on After Winning the 2024 Election

Donald Trump won the 2024 election. Here's what happens next on two key economic issues.

American voters chose Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States, giving him a landslide victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.

The Associated Press's vote in favor of Trump in Wisconsin on Wednesday morning put him in the lead. Trump is now set to be the 45th and 47th president of the United States.

"I think this has been the greatest political movement ever. Now it's going to reach a new level of significance," he told supporters early Wednesday morning as he closed in on victory.

The former president was buoyed by strong support among men and an intense voter focus on inflation, which has been evident in nearly every poll since consumer inflation peaked at a 9.1% annual rate in June 2022.

"America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate," Trump also said Wednesday, pointing to his Electoral College victory and his lead in the popular vote as of Wednesday morning.

Although inflation has slowed in recent years, it has remained front and center in voters' minds, something Trump has shown he can exploit to win Joe Biden voters over to his side and attract new voters who sat out previous contests.

"We're going to transform our country for the better," he promised voters at his final rally late Monday night in Grand Rapids, Michigan. "I'm going to end inflation very quickly."

He repeated this refrain at nearly every campaign stop, including Wednesday morning, when his platform read, "Trump will fix it."

Trump's Inflation Plans

Many economists say Trump's key campaign promises — a new wave of tariffs and "mass deportations" of undocumented immigrants — could put fresh upward pressure on prices.

A late Tuesday note from Capital Economics laid out some macroeconomic concerns. The authors wrote that they expect Trump to move forward with his proposed immigration restrictions and tariffs, and as a result, "we are set to lower our GDP growth forecast … by about one percentage point and add one percentage point to our inflation forecast over the same period."

Trump has remained steadfast on his campaign trail, pledging sweeping new tariffs on Mexico during a stop in North Carolina on the campaign's final day.

"You're the first to tell them that," Trump told a rally in Raleigh. "Congratulations, North Carolina."

Trump has also promised to impose a 60% tariff on China and a 20% tariff on other U.S. trading partners, in addition to imposing tariffs on Mexico.

A Goldman Sachs analysis predicted that a Trump victory would hurt U.S. GDP growth by about 50 basis points, largely due to "the hit to growth from tariffs."

While economists may be skeptical, voters weren't in the mix, as Trump won the Tar Heel State by a healthy margin and found new levels of support over his previous presidential runs in 2016 and 2020.

Another Major Issue: Taxes

Trump will also be at the center of a fierce tax debate in Washington in 2025 over whether to extend the tax cuts that Trump himself signed into law in 2017.

Trump has promised a full extension of the cuts for individuals of all income levels, along with a dizzying array of additional promises, from no taxes on tips and overtime to tax cuts for large corporations.

According to the Center for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), Trump's full tax agenda will cost about $9 trillion over the next decade.

Trump has outlined some concrete ways to pay for it all.

However, how far he will be able to go there depends largely on Congress, where Republicans control the Senate, but control of the U.S. House of Representatives remains unclear. Trump is also set to have a guiding hand on a wide range of issues, from the selection of the next Federal Reserve chair (perhaps the only certainty is that Jerome Powell will not be nominated for a third term) to energy (where Trump may try to roll back support for green energy).