'I'm not making the assumption!' CNN host corrects GOP's Byron Donalds on tariff 'pain'
CNN's Sara Sidner disputed a MAGA lawmaker's defense of president Donald Trump's tariffs.
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) appeared Wednesday morning on "CNN News Central," where Sidner immediately pushed back on his assertion that Democratic gains in Wisconsin and Florida elections didn't really mean anything, and then he set about defending Trump's tariffs as necessary and beneficial.
"We cannot continue the Obama-Biden ways of just subsidizing industries and increasing federal spending, which destroys purchasing power for the American people and is not sustainable," Donalds said. "The way you do that is bring industries back to the United States and allow the American people to be a part of the economic engine, as opposed to just getting cheap goods, but not having the necessary jobs in return in order to sustain, sustain themselves and have a sustainable, growing American economy. That's what we're going to accomplish. Now the markets might be a little skittish in the interim, but over the long term, we will stabilize out and we'll have a better foundation for our economy into the future."
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Sidner asked whether the short-term economic pain justified whatever Trump was trying to accomplish by slapping tariffs on imports from the nation's top trading partners.
"Are you okay, though, with people feeling pain?" she said. "They voted Donald Trump in because they were tired of dealing with the inflation that was there during the Biden administration. Are you okay with your constituents feeling more pressure and more pain when it comes to the economy, as these tariffs are put in place and then the retaliatory tariffs are also put in place? Are you okay with pain being on their shoulders for a while as this all gets worked out?"
"Nobody wants pain for their constituents," Donalds replied. "I don't want pain for the people of Florida."
"Donald Trump said there will be some pain and disruption," Sidner pointed out.
"But you are making an assumption without knowing the details," Donalds insisted.
"I'm not making the assumption," Sidner fired back. "Donald Trump himself said there was pain and disruption that was going to happen."
"You are making an assumption, an economic assumption right now," Donalds continued. "Let's be very clear. The real pain economically has been the massive inflation coming from bloated overspending here in Washington, D.C. That is the real pain that the American people have felt the last four years. What president Trump is trying to do now is bring industries back to the United States, so it's not so much pain. You might have some some temporary adjustments in our economy, but that is for the growth of the American economy."
"There's an old saying in finance you can make markets jump, but you can't make them fly," he added, "and when you follow the old way, the Biden-Obama way of just subsidizing industries, yeah, you make them jump. You can make people feel good in the interim, but it's not sustainable over the long term. Donald Trump is looking at the long term financial outlook for every American, and that's why we're starting today with 'Liberation Day.'"
Sidner signed off the segment with skepticism.
"Right now, the markets are lying down," she said. "They are not jumping or flying."
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