Gary Cohn: Trump only sees one side of tariff impact

• The National Retail Federation has warned sweeping tariffs could cost U.S. consumers up to $78 billion in spending power every year.

What he said: "I think he fundamentally understands, he just doesn't believe, and he can believe this — I don't agree with him — that it doesn't get passed on to the consumer," Cohn said.

• "There's the fundamental difference between my view on tariffs and his view on tariffs: I believe that a tariff is a consumption tax. It's a VAT. You call it what you want," said Cohn, the former president of Goldman Sachs.
• "If you bring something to the border and all of the sudden the importer pays a tax — the importer doesn't eat it, the retailer doesn't eat it, the consumer eats it."

Context: Trump has promised to create an "External Revenue Service" to oversee tariffs and other potential foreign revenue.

• It's an example of his focus on just one side of the economics of tariffs — the U.S. government's collection of revenue.
• Several retailers have already said they'd likely hike prices if such tariffs are implemented.

Zoom out: Trump has said directly that he doesn't believe predictions that tariffs will lead to increased prices in the U.S. on consumers.

• "They cost Americans nothing," he said in a December appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, referring to tariffs during his first term. "It didn't cost this country anything, it made this country money."