Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs are officially in effect, with import taxes at the highest level since the Great Depression. According to The Budget Lab at Yale, the president’s trade war is set to cost U.S. households an average of $2,400 this year.
On Saturday, Rep. Ralph Norman admitted that Trump’s tariffs are already causing higher prices, but told the American people it’s “for the good of the country.”
The South Carolina Republican’s comments were met with immediate criticism, including from “The Weekend” co-hosts Jonathan Capehart and Eugene Daniels, who discussed the impact of Trump’s trade war with fellow MSNBC host Ali Velshi on Sunday.
After playing a clip of Norman’s remarks, Capehart pointed out the glaring hypocrisy: “I’m sorry, wait — he said it’s for the good of the country that costs are higher? They just beat the hell out of Joe Biden when he was president because of high prices.”
Daniels said Norman showed that Republicans are “accepting the reality” of his trade war.
Daniels said Norman showed that Republicans are “accepting the reality” of his trade war. Velshi chimed in and called the tariffs “nonsensical,” going on to say the real losers are America’s small businesses, who have “no leverage.” He added: “They have no lobbying, they have no ability to negotiate, they have no ability to even determine what boat their stuff gets on. Farmers, ranchers — any small business, they can’t do this.”
Velshi also discussed Trump’s “dangerous” threats to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, pointing out “two very distinct problems.”
He explained: “Every major industrialized country has a central bank, and they all follow similar rules to make sure that the person who’s the head of the government doesn’t influence. … So in every country, the central bank chair is offset, like they’re not on the same term as the government. Even in the United States, they’re appointed for 10-year terms. And the problem here is that he wants to influence that.” The second problem, Velshi said, is that “inflation is a much harder problem to handle than recession.” When it comes to a recession, “the government can put money into the economy. You stimulate the economy; they go away in a little while.” But “inflation’s horrible,” he added. “It wrecked Japan’s future as a country. It almost wrecked America’s future in the ’80s.” Velshi pointed out that the president has tried to exert this level of control across the government but said the scale of his attacks on the Fed is a cause for grave concern: “This is what Donald Trump is doing all over government, but he’s doing it writ large here and it’s really dangerous.”
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.
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