Former Vice President Kamala Harris on April 30 criticized President Donald Trump’s approach to the economy and warned of a constitutional crisis in her sharpest rebuke of the president since leaving the White House in January.
“Instead of an administration working to advance America’s highest ideals, we are witnessing the wholesale abandonment of those ideals,” Harris said in San Francisco during an address at the 20th anniversary gala for Emerge America. The organization recruits and trains Democratic women to run for office.
Harris, whose remarks came just one day after Trump marked his 100th day in office, said the new administration is trying to sow fear in Americans.
But in the face of fear comes courage, she said.
“The courage of Americans who are banding together in the face of the greatest man-made economic crisis in modern presidential history,” she said. “Americans across the political spectrum who are declaring that the President’s reckless tariffs hurt workers and families by raising the cost of everyday essentials.”
As a result of Trump’s on-again off-again tariffs, markets have see-sawed and consumer confidence has dropped. It all came to a head Wednesday when data from the Commerce Department showed the economy had its worst quarter in three years.
Trump pushed the blame onto former President Joe Biden, Harris’ one-time boss, saying there will be a “boom” to the economy once his tariffs kick in.
But Harris, who lost in the 2024 presidential election after taking over from Biden, said she predicted that Trump’s tariffs are “clearly inviting a recession.”
The former vice president also warned that checks and balances that the United States has historically relied on “have begun to buckle.” Congress and the courts must do their parts to protect that balance, Harris said. But if the president defies them, it is the start of serious problems, she said.
“Friends, that is called a constitutional crisis,” she said. “And that is a crisis that will eventually impact everyone because it would mean that the rules that protect our fundamental rights and freedoms that ensure each of us has a say about how our government works will no longer matter.”
While she’s reportedly weighing her next move in politics, whether running for president a third time or campaign to be the next California governor, Harris warned Americans that things are probably “going to get worse before they get better.”
“Please always remember this country is ours,” she said. “It doesn’t belong to whoever is in the White House. It belongs to you.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Harris warns of ‘constitutional crisis’ in sharp critique of Trump
