A biographer of Donald Trump had a grim outlook on how the president will affect the US economy, warning Americans will soon start suffering the consequences of tariffs. 

Pulitzer prize winner David Cay Johnston, a longtime Trump critic who has written several books about him, spoke about Trump’s ‘disastrous’ economic policy in the latest episode of DailyMail’s new podcast, Welcome to Magaland. 

‘Donald believes that tariffs are paid by foreign countries, even though that’s ridiculous,’ the former New York Times reporter said on Monday, adding that it will be the American consumer who will pay for the tariffs. 

‘Donald is a con artist at heart. He’s very good at it. He has millions of people persuaded that his plan will make us rich. It’s not possible for that to happen – the actions he’s taken cannot a lead to enormous wealth except for a relatively small number of people at the very top.’

President Trump has shocked economists as he continues to double down on tariffs on Canada and Mexico; on Tuesday he said he would double the planned tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50 percent for Canada, escalating the trade war as a response to the price increases Ontario put on electricity sold to the US.

‘Donald’s tariff plan harkens back to the era in the United States in the late 18th and the 19th centuries when the government was very small and tariffs were a way to build up the economic muscle of domestic manufacturers,’ Johnston said of Trump’s economic policy.

The biographer predicted that Trump’s approval rating will suffer once the effects of tariffs start to bite. 

‘Donald’s ratings will continue to be good until people discover his economics are not good for them,’ he said. I think it’s going to be a while, but I won’t be surprised if as early as summer we begin to see Americans souring and saying, “wait a minute, what’s going on here?”‘

Trump has expressed admiration for the Gilded Age economy and president William McKinlye, who imposed heavy tariffs as the US economy was growing a century ago, before the US had an income tax. 

His commerce secretary Howard Lutnick has said one of Trump’s goals with tariffs is to abolish the income tax and the IRS and have foreign countries pay for US services instead.

The president has promised his economic plan will make America so rich ‘you’re not going to know where to spend all that money.’ 

But on Monday the US stock market had its worst day in three years as Wall Street questioned how much pain President Trump will let the economy endure through tariffs and other policies in order to get what he wants.

The S&P 500 dropped 2.7 percent to drag it close to 9 percent below its all-time high, which was set just last month. At one point, the S&P 500 was down 3.6 percent and on track for its worst day since 2022. That’s when the highest inflation in generations was shredding budgets and raising worries about a possible recession that ultimately never came.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 890 points, or 2.1 percent, after paring an earlier loss of more than 1,100, while the Nasdaq composite skidded by 4percent.

It was the worst day yet in a scary stretch where the S&P 500 has swung more than 1 percent, up or down, seven times in eight days because of Trump’s on -and- off -again tariffs. 

The worry is that the whipsaw moves will either hurt the economy directly or create enough uncertainty to drive US companies and consumers into an economy-freezing paralysis.

The economy has already given some signals of weakening, mostly through surveys showing increased pessimism. And a widely followed collection of real-time indicators compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta suggests the US economy may already be shrinking.

Asked over the weekend whether he was expecting a recession in 2025, Trump told Fox News: ‘I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing.’

He then added, ‘It takes a little time. It takes a little time.’

Welcome to MAGALand podcast: 

White House-insiders Kelly Laco and Germania Rodriguez bring you the latest from the heart of the Trump administration in the way that only dailymail.com can: the gossip; the scandals; the fashion; the family; the accusations; and – of course – the biggest political news stories of the day.

Kelly and Germania will be joined by a regular cast of commentators, political insiders, and former Trump staffers for a three times weekly run down on the world’s biggest, most powerful soap opera. Search Welcome to MAGAland wherever you get your podcasts now.