US President Donald Trump hints at removing income tax and replacing it with tariffs

United States President Donald Trump has once again advocated doing away with income tax for Americans, saying that it is “time for the US to return to a system that made us richer and powerful”. He added that the US should be enriching itself by “tariffing and taxing foreign nationals”.

Speaking at the 2025 Republican Issues Conference at the Trump National Doral Miami on January 27, 2025, in Doral, Florida, Donald Trump outlined his proposal. AFP reported that the three-day planning session was expected to lay out Trump's ambitious legislative agenda.

What Did Donald Trump Say on Income Tax?

“America's gonna be very rich again and its gonna happen very quickly. It's time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said.

He asserted that the US had no income tax prior to 1913, and it was the tariff system that made America rich in the past and gave previous presidents the capital to do work for the country.

“You know the US in 1870-1913 — all tariffs and that was the richest period in the history of the US — relatively speaking. And they set up a blue ribbon committee, the great tariff commission of 1887 and this commission had one function: ‘what to do with all the money that we took in?’” he claimed.

“It was so enormous that they had no idea and what to do with all of the money that we had. And again, Teddy Roosevelt was a beneficiary … and he did all of those national parks and all of the other things… he was given a vast amount of money, and that was all made through tariffs. We had no income tax, the income tax came in 1913,” he added.

‘Tax Foreign Nationals to Enrich Our Citizens’

“As I said in my speech last week, instead of taxing our citizens to enrich foreign nations we should be tariffing and taxing foreign nations to enrich our citizens. Does that make sense? Right?” he asked the clapping crowd.

So, will the US remove income tax and replace it with tariffs? 

Trump has repeatedly voiced support for the move — even during his campaign to become President last year.

Tariffs are typically charged as a percentage of the price a buyer pays a foreign seller. In the US, tariffs are collected by Customs and Border Protection agents at 328 ports of entry across the country, according to an AP report. It added that mainstream economists are generally sceptical of tariffs, considering them a mostly inefficient way for governments to raise money and promote prosperity.