President Biden said on Tuesday that President-elect Donald J. Trump’s plans to impose tax cuts for the wealthy and sweeping tariffs would be “a major mistake,” while warning that the incoming president would face blowback from Republicans if he moved to unwind the Biden agenda.
During what the White House billed as a “legacy speech,” Mr. Biden for nearly 40 minutes defended his proposals to reshape American manufacturing and cautioned that Mr. Trump’s economic vision would hurt working-class Americans.
“He seems determined to impose steep, universal tariffs on all important goods brought into this country on the mistaken belief that foreign countries will bear the cost of those tariffs, rather than the American consumer,” Mr. Biden said at the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit think tank.
Since Mr. Trump’s election win last month, Mr. Biden has gone relatively quiet with his attacks on his political rival in what White House aides say is an intentional effort to focus on a peaceful transfer of power. But as Mr. Trump finalizes plans for his new administration, Mr. Biden went on the offensive against his policy proposals.
Mr. Biden scoffed at Mr. Trump’s failure to pass an infrastructure package and warned that his tax cuts would increase the deficit or cut federal social services programs. He mocked Mr. Trump’s handling of the pandemic and accused him of embracing Project 2025, a right-wing policy blueprint to expand executive power and replace civil servants.
Mr. Trump had tried to distance himself from the plans to overhaul the federal government during the presidential campaign, despite the fact that many of his former aides developed the proposals and he has recruited key architects of the project to his new administration.
