{"id":336886,"date":"2026-10-28T17:58:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T17:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/trump-is-using-tariffs-as-a-tool-for-grift-raskin-says-in-demand-for-donor-records.html"},"modified":"2026-10-28T17:58:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T17:58:25","slug":"trump-is-using-tariffs-as-a-tool-for-grift-raskin-says-in-demand-for-donor-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/trump-is-using-tariffs-as-a-tool-for-grift-raskin-says-in-demand-for-donor-records.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump is using tariffs as a &#8216;tool for grift,&#8217; Raskin says in demand for donor records"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Raskin, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee and the former top Democrat on<strong> <\/strong>the House oversight committee, highlighted three such tariff carve-outs \u2014 for <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">Brazilian meat<\/a>, <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">diamonds<\/a> and <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">smartphones<\/a> \u2014 that he says &#8220;make little to no sense&#8221; under the criteria set by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They do, however, make sense when factoring in the now world famous Trump Tariff Discount,&#8221; Raskin wrote, coining a term to describe the president&#8217;s alleged willingness to cut breaks for his allies and benefactors &#8220;when the price is right.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The letter asks Trump to hand over multiple categories of records spanning his second term, including communications between the White House and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, or USTR, related to any form of tariff relief for more than a dozen industries.<\/p>\n<p>It makes a similar request for communications involving private-sector representatives, including <span class=\"QuoteInBody-quoteNameContainer\" data-test=\"QuoteInBody\" id=\"RegularArticle-QuoteInBody-9\">Apple<span class=\"QuoteInBody-inlineButton\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistContainer\" id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\" data-analytics-id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\"><button class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistButton\" aria-label=\"Add To Watchlist\" data-testid=\"dropdown-btn\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-addWatchListFromTag\"><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/span><\/span> executive chairman <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">Tim Cook<\/a> and Rolex CEO Jean-Frederic Dufour. Raskin asked for those records by Nov. 11.<\/p>\n<p>Raskin&#8217;s pugnacious letter directly accuses Trump of &#8220;profound corruption,&#8221; asserting that his heavy-handed use of tariffs is really about clinching &#8220;levers of power that you could maliciously pull to extract exciting concessions for yourself.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The missive \u2014 which cites the Judiciary Committee&#8217;s &#8220;jurisdiction over corruption, conflicts of interest, and effective enforcement of criminal and civil laws&#8221; \u2014 could offer a preview of how Democrats will flex their oversight powers against Trump should they win majority control of the House or Senate in the <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">midterm election<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Raskin also drew a link between Trump&#8217;s alleged misuse of tariffs and Americans&#8217; affordability concerns, connecting two of voters&#8217; top concerns in the final stretch of the election cycle.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While you have protected your personal investments and crocodile skin connoisseurs from the giant bite of your tariffs, the American people are suffering. Independent analysts expect that your latest round of tariffs will cost an average of $820 per U.S. household this year,&#8221; he wrote, <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">citing data<\/a> from the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>The most recent <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">CNBC All-America Economic Survey<\/a> found voters are most concerned about government corruption, followed by high grocery and gas prices. Democratic candidates have deliberately tailored their campaign messaging to make connections between corruption and high costs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The only special interest guiding the Trump administration&#8217;s decision-making is the best interest of the American people,&#8221; a White House official told CNBC on condition of anonymity to respond to Raskin&#8217;s letter.<\/p>\n<p>The USTR did not respond to CNBC&#8217;s request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Raskin homed in on the far-reaching tariffs the U.S. <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">imposed in July<\/a> using Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration says those duties, which apply to more than 80 countries and cover nearly all U.S. imports, are meant to crack down on foreign forced-labor practices. But Raskin and other critics, including plaintiffs in a <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">major lawsuit<\/a> challenging the tariffs, argue they are actually intended to replace the sweeping &#8220;liberation day&#8221; duties the Supreme Court struck down in February.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;One could be forgiven for doubting the sincerity of your Administration&#8217;s sudden concern for the victims of forced labor,&#8221; Raskin wrote.<\/p>\n<p>He pointed to Trump&#8217;s decision last year to lift forced-labor-related restrictions on Dominican sugar producer Central Romana, despite <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">allegations<\/a> that the company&#8217;s abusive practices persisted. <\/p>\n<p>Central Romana&#8217;s owner, Jos\u00e9 Francisco &#8220;Pepe&#8221; Fanjul, <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">reportedly<\/a> hosted a $50 million fundraiser for Trump in 2024, and his family corporation that year <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">donated $1 million<\/a> to a pro-Trump PAC. He has also been <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">listed as a donor<\/a> to Trump&#8217;s White House ballroom project.<\/p>\n<p>The USTR only offers <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">exemptions<\/a> to the Section 301 tariffs in certain cases, including where additional duties would not help reduce forced-labor practices. But the trade office&#8217;s exemption list &#8220;contains conspicuous \u2014and suspicious \u2014 carve-outs for a few industries,&#8221; Raskin wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Article source: https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/10\/28\/trump-tariffs-corruption-raskin.html<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Raskin, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee and the former top Democrat on the House oversight committee, highlighted three such tariff carve-outs \u2014 for Brazilian meat, diamonds and smartphones \u2014 that he says &#8220;make little to no sense&#8221; under the criteria set by the Trump administration. &#8220;They do, however, make sense when factoring [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-336886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336886\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}