U.S. President Donald Trump smiles during an announcement about "Trump accounts", in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Eric Bolling of Real America's Voice is one of President Donald Trump's biggest cheerleaders. During the federal government shutdown, he urged Trump to fire hundreds of thousands of Democrats from the federal payroll. But there's one issue on which he is feeling heartburn from the Trump administration, and that is tariffs.
He let his feelings be known in a conversation on Wednesday with Mike Appling, the CEO and owner of Lift High Crane and Rigging Company in Houston, Texas.
"Now, I understand ... they told me that you are still yet pro-tariffs," said Bolling. "Explain that, how can you be pro-tariffs, yet you're, the business that you started is having a hard time because of those tariffs?"
"Well, the whole crane industry is having a hard time with the tariffs and it's kind of a unified front," said Appling. "But we are all supportive of reshoring manufacturing in the United States. We want to make American manufacturing great again, and that is what's going on. The tariffs are having the effect that President Trump and the administration would like to have, but it's also — there are unintended consequences in certain markets where it's just not as efficient to do broad-based tariffs the way we're currently doing them."
"So cranes, bananas, beef from Venezuela, autos, AI — my question is, you know, I'm an economist, right? I think you guys are misreading this," said Bolling. "I think you're right in that it's difficult because you need to go outside the country because, frankly, these things have been produced outside the country cheaper because labor is cheaper there, etc. Raw materials are cheaper there. They don't have minimum wages in China. They don't have a whole list of regulations in China. So, they can produce a crane cheaper."
"So your choice is either go buy a Chinese crane and hope they're not spying on you, by the way, which they might be with materials and/or technology, or spend more money here," he continued. "I just — I believe every single industry is in the same quagmire. What do we do? And for me, I just want the tariffs to go away."
Later in the discussion, Bolling concluded, "Maybe it is industry by industry or product by product. But Mike, we hope you do figure out where you're going to go from here, make your appeal. Where can people find you and/or help you out with this initiative?"
"I think you hit the nail on the head earlier," said Appling. "Call your congressman, call your senator, and this situation needs to be escalated where people understand that there are a lot of good things going on, but there are also a lot of things that are unintended consequences, and we want to get that resolved."