Inside Trump’s Tariff Push And Its Global Impact

President Trump's use of tariffs have reshaped global trade. While critics warned that consumers could bear the cost, inflation has recently eased and Trump says the policy is driving investment, strengthening US leverage and funding major initiatives. NTD's Washington correspondent Jack Bradley breaks down what's at play. >> Tariffs, my favorite word, tariffs. >> President Trump has taken an aggressive approach to tariffs over the past year. And whether you're for or against them, they've created a major change in the global economy. Critics have argued that tariffs on goods fall onto the consumer, but it's not immediately clear that prices on certain tariff goods have gone up. And the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report on the annual inflation rate shows that it dropped from 3% to 2.7% last month. Now, President Trump has many reasons behind these tariffs, and one of the main ones is to rebalance unfair trade practices with other countries that have been putting up trade barriers against the US for years, and also to encourage domestic manufacturing. Trump said that these tariffs have already been encouraging trillions of dollars in US investment. Companies know that if they build in America, there are no tariffs. And that's why they're coming home to the USA in record numbers. They're building factories and plants at levels we haven't seen. AI, automobiles. We're doing what nobody thought was even possible. Not even remotely possible. There has never, frankly, been anything like it. One year ago, our country was dead. We were absolutely dead. Our country was ready to fail. Totally failed. Now, we're the hottest country anywhere in the world. And that's said by every single leader that I've spoken to over the last five months. >> In that year-end address, President Trump said to the nation that he's sending $1,776 bonus checks to 1.45 million military members. Trump says that the income made from tariffs made it possible. >> And the checks are already on the way. Nobody understood that one until about 30 minutes ago. We made a lot more money than anybody thought because of tariffs and the bill helped us along. Nobody deserves it more than our military. And I say congratulations to everybody. And by the way, we now have record enlistment in our military. And last year we had among the worst recruitment numbers in our military's history. What a difference a year makes. Now, President Trump also said that he used the threat of tariffs to end certain wars such as between India and Pakistan, Cambodia and Thailand, and between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, just to name a few. Trump has also used tariffs as part of a separate negotiation with other countries on a range of issues, including on illegal immigration and drug trafficking. He lowered tariffs on China by 10% for instance all in exchange for curbing fentinel precursor chemicals to the US. He also placed tariffs on Mexico and Canada to stem the flow of fentinel other drugs and also illegal immigration to the US. Now on the domestic front, Trump said that tariffs could be used to potentially lower or eliminate federal income taxes, pay off the national debt, and send dividend payments worth $2,000 to low and middle inome families next year. The Supreme Court is hearing a case on whether to uphold or reject Trump's tariffs under an emergency law. If it's rejected, it could result in the US having to refund all of the collected tariff money, which now amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars. And Trump has called this case the biggest threat to US national security and could render the nation financially defenseless. Reporting by Jack Bradley, NTD News.