Trump Scolded Companies for Raising Prices. Do They Have a Choice?

When President Trump complained on Saturday that Walmart should “stop trying to blame tariffs” for looming price increases, many economists recalled the last time they heard a president rail against companies for raising prices.

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Populist critics of mainstream economics see companies’ pricing decisions much more cynically. Oren Cass, a former Republican policy aide, said in an email that a large company like Walmart had far more influence over its prices than it let on.

“If Walmart were to simply adopt a policy that ‘we will not change our prices in response to the tariffs,’ there would be some situations where suppliers ate the costs, some where suppliers shifted to other sources of supply to avoid the tariffs and some where Walmart accepted lower margins,” said Mr. Cass, whose think tank, American Compass, pushes Republicans to adopt more worker-friendly policies.