While the Supreme Court stepped in today to declare Trump’s tariffs illegal, a reminder that the Republicans running for governor have supported this tax that has taken money out of Georgians’ pockets and dramatically driven up the cost of living. Rick Jackson even went so far to share with the AJC this week that he “couldn’t name a single White House policy he disagrees with.”
Burt Jones, Rick Jackson, Brad Raffensperger, and Chris Carr have all supported Trump’s cost-raising agenda, with Jones standing side-by-side with Trump in Rome on Thursday as he declared tariffs “the most beautiful word” and declared that affordability was no longer an issue for Georgians.
Jones has a long record of supporting Trump’s reckless tariffs, with the AJC reporting in November 2024 that Jones “was not concerned that Trump’s proposed tariffs could hurt any economic relief.” He doubled down on this in February 2025, sharing in an 1-on-1 interview with 11Alive that he was not concerned about the tariffs’ impacts on Georgia farmers, even as the Georgia Farm Bureau has long warned that “[t]ariffs pose threats to many Georgia farmers” and producers of everything from soybeans to peaches, strawberries and pumpkins have struggled to keep up with these cost-raising policies.
This comes in the wake of Georgia families shelling out $1,200 more on average to keep up with cost of living, and business owners have described the tariffs as a “gut punch.” And Trump showed no sign of letting up on these reckless policies as he worked to implement a 10% global tariff following the Supreme Court’s decision Friday.
“Trump’s tariffs have been illegally taking money out of our pockets, and Burt Jones, Rick Jackson, Brad Raffensperger, and Chris Carr are all perfectly okay with that,” said Jake Strickland, communications advisor to the Democratic Party of Georgia. “Just goes to show how much the Republicans running for governor are willing to completely endorse a cost-raising MAGA agenda that’s making Georgia a much more expensive place to live just to show loyalty to Donald Trump.”
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