Trump's Gilded Age supporters would like nothing more than to do away with the federal income tax.

We are gonna get so rich here in the USA! (Sarcasm over).

Yeah- there is no way that Congress will agree to this.

Income taxes raise over a trillion dollars in government revenue. Tariffs in 2025 raised about 170 billion so there will be a huge deficit. The defense budget is almost a trillion so where are they going to make the deficit up. Only way to do that is with a national sales tax which disproportionately hurt the middle class because more of a % of their income pays this tax and more fees for services on medicare/medicaid and etc.

Buy nothing...or as little as possible.

The tariffs as applied, generated $175 billion. (Of course, that number comes from people I don't trust, so could be lower.)
Income taxes generated >$3 trillion in 2025! So tariffs would have to be high enough to generate 18x the money.
Thus makes it nothing more than a regressive consumption tax.

I remember repubs saying this during the run up to the election.

They have been saying it for years.

I guess this is what they meant.

drop the taxes on the very wealthy altogether

raise or leave in place everyone elses taxes.

Taxes on the bottom 90% and tarrifs on everyone is how they intend to change the system.

This has been the goal of the repubs for a long tiime

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/01/the-gops-weird-obsession-with-poor-people-not-paying-enough-taxes/250928/

So what if it's the most regressive system that could be imposed as long as the rich are protected.

If they drive up the price of imports enough to make people use domestic alternatives instead, then the base the tariff is raised from is limited.

If people can't find a domestic alternative, then it is just a sales tax. And the very rich spend their money in ways that don't attract US sales taxes, eg by going abroad and consuming there. Or they hoard money, as investments or inflated real estate, until they can spend it without attracting tax.

You can't base a modern economy on anything other than income tax. You have to "go where the money is". You can tinker at the edges with tariffs and sales taxes, or inheritance taxes, but you need the core of an income tax, because it's hard to avoid.

Yes, it's an awful plan; whether Trump is smart enough to know that, but thinks he can fool MAGA who aren't smart enough, or whether he's as dumb as them, is unclear.

Tariffs are regressive sales taxes. The income tax is progressive which means that it is based on ability to pay. trump wants to replace a very progressive form of taxation with a very regressive form