‘Stop paying taxes’: Bill Clinton reveals what Trump privately told him on the golf course — warns you’ll feel it soon

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Long before Donald Trump entered the White House, he had a pitch for Bill Clinton — and Clinton warned him that ordinary Americans could end up footing the bill.

At a campaign rally in Tupelo, Mississippi, on Oct. 30, Clinton recalled a time when the two were on friendlier terms.

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"I've known President Trump a long time. We used to have quite a friendly relationship 24 years ago. We'd play golf," Clinton said (1).

And there was one idea Trump kept bringing up.

"Even then, he believed in these tariffs," Clinton said. "He kept saying, 'We're the biggest, strongest, richest country in the world. Why don't we just put a bunch of tariffs on everybody else and stop paying taxes altogether?'"

"I said, 'Well, because Don,'" Clinton recalled telling him, pausing to explain that back then, Trump was Donald, not Mr. President.

"I said, 'Because these people don't just eat the tariffs. They just charge the people who buy the stuff, whatever it is. So, we pay the tariffs,'" he continued.

Did Trump listen? In Clinton's retelling, "just like now, he didn't hear what he didn't want to hear."

Economists generally view tariffs as a double-edged sword.

On one hand, they can protect domestic industries by making imported goods more expensive, giving local manufacturers a competitive edge. On the other hand, higher tariffs may result in increased costs for consumers, as companies pass on the extra expenses. This can lead to inflation, eroding household purchasing power and raising the cost of living.

Shoppers are already seeing some of those costs at checkout. In an April analysis, Federal Reserve researchers estimated (2) that tariffs imposed through November 2025 had raised core goods prices by 3.1% by February 2026. They found that the price effects built gradually, giving shoppers a reason to pay attention even after the initial headlines fade.

Clinton also pointed to a separate hit to household budgets.

"Then you got these higher gas prices," he said. "That's the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz."