'Back off of stupid': Ex-RNC chair warns Trump will wreck economy with 'bully' threats

MSNBC's Michael Steele laughed at Donald Trump's tariff threats after Canada's prime minister Justin Trudeau flew to Florida to ask the president-elect about the proposal himself.

Trudeau had dinner with the former president Friday at Mar-a-Lago after he threatened to impose 25-percent tariffs on Canadian products if the neighboring country didn't stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across the northern border, and the former Republican National Committee chair tried to imagine how their conversation went.

"I get it, I get what Tim Ryan was saying about, yeah, you got to go do the thing," Steele said. "I would have done it from Canada. You know, look, it's like, I think this playing into Donald Trump's ego is part of the problem and, you know, bullies bully, and we know he's going to do whatever he is going to do. You've just got to draw the line with him but, you know, Canada has to figure out for itself, and he figured it would be smart to go down to Florida and spend time and hopefully not get Donald Trump to do the thing he's going to do anyway."

The prime minister issued a statement afterward noting that tariffs would raise the cost of consumer goods, which Trump had promised to reduce during his campaign, but Trudeau said he had no reason to doubt the president-elect would carry through on his threat.

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"Here's the thing," said MSNBC's Alicia Menendez. "There's almost like, go ahead – 25 percent tariff on these goods? During, in the aftermath of an election where people were saying, the price of goods, the cost of living is my motivation for coming out to vote."

"So my question, my question to Trudeau is what did you put on the table to tell him he needs to back off of stupid," Steele added.

"Maybe a calculator," Menendez interjected. "Let me explain to you what it's going to cost you over here."

"Draw a map for you," Steele offered. "You're going to see a 30 percent increase on the cost of good. The reality to your point of where the voters are, they, and Tim said this as well. Someone understands their pain and their problem. Well, he is going to bring more pain with this policy. It is not a policy that alleviates the economic struggle you are in, it exacerbates it. The thing about it is, again, I just don't know if people really fully appreciate how interconnected all aspects of our economy are. It's not just leveling a tariff on produce or on manufactured goods, it is the ripple effect, how that impacts the supply chain of other goods and services. So, you know, when you want to play the tariff game, there's going to be a price that the American people are going to pay and, you know, I guess Trudeau is trying to get ahead of that a little bit."

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