'Incredibly hypocritical': Dem clashes with GOP strategist over Trump's speech

A pair of commentators clashed on CNN over Donald Trump's economic policies laid out in his congressional address.

The president touted his tariffs as a vehicle for "making America rich again and making America great again," but he conceded they may cause some short-term "turbulence," which conservative pundit Shermichael Singleton argued would be relatively insignificant.

"Look, [commerce secretary] Howard Lutnick, I believe yesterday, stated that he's having conversations with individuals in Canada and Mexico to try to level the playing field in terms of trade between our three countries. Donald Trump has always been clear that the usage of tariffs is sort of a tool in his toolbox to, again, have that equal playing field. I do think, though, to the point that I think you're getting at, we do have to be careful. The economy is still very fragile right now. We saw the stock markets, billions and billions lost in a single day, and so my expectation is that the administration is going to do what's necessary to focus on driving costs down, focus on cost of living for the average American, and make sure that American workers – UAW released a statement yesterday saying, 'Hey, this is a good thing in terms of trying to bring manufacturing back to the United States.' That will boost the middle class, which has continued to shrink decade after decade, and so I want to give the president a little more time here to figure out what the ultimate strategic aims are with tariffs as a maneuvering tool."

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Political strategist Maria Cardona said the president had so far failed to deliver on his signature campaign promise to lower costs.

"Democrats understand that Donald Trump won because of what he promised voters on the economy," Cardona said, "and that's why last night's speech was so insidious, because it had zero solutions on that, and my dear friend Shermichael talked about the young man who was suffering from childhood cancer, but yet who is cutting cancer research? Talked about farmers, who is cutting grants that go to farmers? Talked about law enforcement, who pardoned cop killers? So that is the problem with Donald Trump's speech last night. It was incredibly hypocritical, and it doesn't focus on the one issue that voters were counting on him for, and that is bringing down costs, and that's what Democrats are going to focus on."

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