Trump's latest comments expose his tariffs as a 'bad plan': ex-GOP lawmaker

President Donald Trump's so-called reciprocal tariffs against nearly 100 countries snapped into place Tuesday, and a former Republican congressman trashed his plans as simply "bad."

The tuxedo-wearing president boasted Tuesday night at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual fundraising dinner that world leaders were "kissing my a--" to get around his punishing tariffs, including a massive 104-percent duty against Chinese imports, and former GOP lawmaker Charlie Dent told CNN that Trump's trade war made no sense.

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"The privileged few want to be protected at the expense of the many – he just said it," Dent told "CNN This Morning." "He wants to raise prices and that's what's going to happen. This will raise prices if we impose tariffs on steel or on shrimp or whatever, the price is going to go up. The domestic folks will use this, and by the way, I just heard president Trump say that all these countries are coming to him saying, you know, they want to kiss his butt. Well, I got news for you: One of those calls probably wasn't president Xi [Jinping], because you know what? He leads an authoritarian regime, right? He can take a lot of pain."

China's foreign minister Lin Jian denounced Trump's "bullying" and vowed to protect its rights and interests, while leaving the door open to negotiations under certain conditions, but other countries, like Vietnam, have made clear they wish to reach a deal to drop the tariffs, but it's not clear what the White House actually wants.

"Look, they have two objectives," Dent said. "You hear the objectives is their objective. You know, to raise the rates the tariff rates to collect money so they can allegedly or supposedly bring back manufacturing or do they want to get to zero-zero, bring the rates down. I think they want to keep the rates high and then, as Trump said, he wants a line full of countries, companies, trade associations knocking on his door, begging for exemptions, and that's the game."

"I'm very cynical about this," Dent added, "and there's a lot of ways for people to raise money off of this, and so, but anytime you have a policy or a rule that needs so many exemptions, you have a bad rule."

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