Trump Press Secretary Says Everyone Is Lying About Hating the Tariffs
The Trump administration is desperately trying to save its image as the president’s reciprocal tariff scheme tanks global markets and sparks fear of a recession.
“Everybody in Washington, whether they want to admit it or not, knows that this president is right when it comes to tariffs and when it comes to trade,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday.
That’s not true. Even Republicans are turning on Donald Trump over his global tariffs, which are already devastating small businesses and spurring economic chaos in the United States and abroad.
On “Liberation Day,” the president implemented reciprocal tariffs of 10 percent or more on about 90 countries, which he claimed will end the trade deficit between the U.S. and other countries.
Seven Republican senators, including the Senate’s president pro tempore Chuck Grassley, signed onto a bipartisan bill Monday that would require Congress to sign off on new tariffs on U.S. trading partners.
Other members of the GOP have publicly denounced the tariffs for being unconstitutional.
“Our Constitution was very specific that taxes—tariffs are a tax—taxes originate in the House, come to the Senate, and then go to the president,” Senator Paul Rand told reporters last week. “They don’t just go to the president and no one else. What kind of system would it be if all of our taxes and laws were passed by one person?”
House Democrats, meanwhile, have moved quickly to try to mitigate further damage. On Tuesday, they introduced a House disapproval resolution that would end the emergency authority Trump used to enact the tariff scheme and force the GOP to vote on the president’s reckless economic decisions.
“Republicans can’t keep ducking the vote on these taxes. It is time they take a vote and show their constituents whether or not they support the ‘economic pain’ President Trump is inflicting on American families,” Representatives Gregory Meeks, Richard Neal, and Rick Larsen said while introducing the resolution.
Apparently bipartisan moves to protect the country from “economic pain” and unconstitutional taxes aren’t enough to convince the White House that no, not everybody in Washington thinks this president is right when it comes to tariffs and trade.