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Jack Schlossberg unveils plan to roll back Trump tariffs on food, clothing

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on

Published in Political News

Manhattan Democratic congressional candidate Jack Schlossberg has unveiled a proposal to roll back President Trump’s punishing tariffs on food and clothing, he told the Daily News Monday.

The grandson of President John F. Kennedy said he would push for a bill outlawing Trump’s tariffs on imported food and apparel because the taxes on those essentials are hitting low- and middle-income consumers the hardest.

“The Trump tariffs on food and clothing are killing people the most, especially for New Yorkers who are struggling to make ends meet,” Schlossberg told the News. “These are the two most egregious costs people are facing every day when going to the grocery store has become a hellish experience.”

The 32-year-old scion of the famed Camelot political dynasty recounted meeting a young mom shopping at Macy’s on Black Friday for new sneakers for her son after he grew out of a pair she had bought for him at the start of the school year, just a couple of months ago.

“It’s especially hard for parents of kindergartners or first-graders who are growing every day,” Schlossberg said. “It’s a regressive tax on ordinary Americans, on ordinary New Yorkers.”

Schlossberg, 32, who has no previous legislative experience, is vying with several other Democrats in what is shaping up as a dog fight 2026 primary to replace long-serving Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., in the deep-blue NY-12 district that covers both the Upper West and Upper East Sides. Assemblyman Micah Lasher, a protege of Nadler, is also considered a front-runner, along with City Councilman Erik Bottcher and Assemblyman Alex Bores.

Jack Schlossberg’s mother is Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of former President Kennedy, and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is his cousin. The famed family was recently hit by the tragic news that one of Jack Schlossberg’s two older sisters has terminal cancer.

The Democratic hopeful stresses that he broadly opposes Trump’s tariffs, which experts estimate will cost the average family $2,400 a year, and believes Congress should vote to retake its congressional authority to levy them on imported goods. The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on a challenge to the levies.

But Schlossberg sees a targeted approach to food and clothing tariffs as a potential opening that could win the support of some Republicans and even Trump loyalists.

 

“We don’t necessarily expect Republicans to break with the president on everything, but this is very specific,” he said. “We’re already seeing the fracturing of his MAGA base on some issues. People are really feeling it.”

Trump recently said he would roll back tariffs on a short list of grocery items, including beef, coffee and bananas, saying he wanted to cushion American consumers from rising prices. But the president did not explain how those products were identified and why the same principle wouldn’t apply to other staple products.

“He’s already shown that this could be a weak point for him,” Schlossberg said.

Trump has spent most of his first year in office sending shoppers and businesses on a chaotic roller-coaster ride of tariffs on imported goods from rivals like China and close allies like Canada, the European Union and Mexico.

The president has offered a laundry list of rationales for the taxes, ranging from geopolitical goals to incentivizing manufacturers to build factories in the U.S.

Trump claims foreign governments or companies pay the tariffs but experts say they are paid by American firms and passed on to American consumers at the cash register.

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©2025 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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