Senator John Kennedy made one frank admission that Donald Trump will hate
Louisiana Senator John Kennedy is normally one of President Trump’s most reliable supporters.
But Kennedy broke with Trump.
And Senator John Kennedy made one frank admission that Donald Trump will hate.
President Trump’s sweeping plan for universal and reciprocal tariffs roiled Wall Street and Washington.
Investors and elected officials panicked that tariffs would incite a global trade war that would drive the economy into a recession and spike unemployment.
Trump slapped these tariffs on 180 countries because of how they exploited trade deals to rip off American workers and take their jobs.
Prior to President Trump winning the GOP nomination in 2016, the GOP was the party of so-called “free trade.”
Establishment Republicans support thousand-page trade deals that manage the conditions of global commerce.
These deals brought down tariffs and trade barriers into the United States allowing countries like Communist China to dump cheap goods in America and undercut domestic producers.
President Trump hoped to force a grand negotiation to eliminate barriers and unfair trade practices on other countries to open their markets to American goods.
The stock market sank 10 percent over three days in response to the tariffs going into effect.
Senator Kennedy told CNN’s Kasie Hunt that he was uneasy about the tariffs.
“I’m not gonna feign understanding,” Kennedy told Hunt about the tariffs.
Kennedy said while he wasn’t sure the tariffs would work; Kennedy also wasn’t ready to buy into the economists’ predictions of doom and gloom.
“I have no idea what the impact is gonna be on the American economy or the world economy. I listen to all these economists confidently predict that it’s gonna do this or gonna do that. They’re very self-confident,” Kennedy added.
All these so-called “experts” wrongly predicted President Trump would crash the economy in this first term.
Kennedy – like President Trump – acknowledged that there would be some short term pain to the tariffs, and if the negative consequences persisted, Trump would have to pivot.
“Most of them act like they discovered gravity. But they don’t know what’s gonna happen. And they’re gonna have a record to prove it. So, we’ll just have to wait and see. It’s been painful, but it may turn out well. It may not. If it doesn’t turn out well, I think the president will recalibrate,” Kennedy continued.
High inflation was due to Joe Biden’s reckless spending.
But Hunt asked Kennedy if the tariffs now meant Americans should blame President Trump for any economic woes.
“To that point,” Hunt continued on. “Do you think it’s Donald Trump’s economy now?”
Kennedy answered in the affirmative.
“Oh, I think it is,” Kennedy stated. “There’s no question. I think once he decides to add the tariffs, clearly, I mean, he will be held responsible – as he should – whether it turns out good or it turns out badly.”
Republicans want to look as supportive as possible of President Trump.
But pre-Trump Republicans like Kennedy are institutionally free traders.
And they are ready to jump ship at the first sign of trouble from these tariffs.
