'Makes no economic sense': Trump adviser flips on tariffs five months after praising them

With Donald Trump out of the country, one of his most prominent economic advisers is bashing him for costing America jobs.

The U.S. president is currently in the UK, being feted with banquets and parades, while the effects of his trade war with the world are taking effect and that has alarmed Stephen Moore, long associated with Trump going back to his first stint as president.

In a column for the Wall Street Journal, Moore lashed out at Trump’s aluminum tariffs, explaining it is not only crippling job creation but that they make no “economic sense.”

That is a far cry from the stance he took in April of this year when he told Fox News personality Sean Hannity, “Nobody in the media will give Trump, you know, a fair hearing here. It looks like he's getting these deals coming in, and that is good for America. In fact, frankly, it's good for some of these other countries -- to American farmers and American manufacturing products and our technology products. So it looks to me, Sean, like this is kind of going according to plan.”

Almost five months later, he is no longer so sure.

“If left to stand, President Trump’s June order to raise the tax on imported aluminum to 50% will almost certainly cost far more manufacturing jobs than it will save,” he wrote late Wednesday.

He went on to report that “Novelis alone is one of the world’s largest producers of aluminum for cans of beer and soft drinks,” and now a proposed $4.1 billion plan in Alabama is facing suspension and thousands of jobs may disappear.

"The U.S. manufacturers hit by Mr. Trump’s tariffs are frustrated. They provide good jobs to Americans yet are getting hammered. Many also compete directly with China—which will be the big winner of the aluminum tariffs. Mr. Trump promised that ‘there are no tariffs if you manufacture or build your product in the United States.’ That has proved utterly untrue," he accused.

With that, he advised, “If the administration really wants a return of good blue-collar jobs, the president should immediately cancel, or at least suspend, the aluminum tariffs. It could be prudent to offer firms a rebate for aluminum producers reshoring jobs to America, which many of these companies are."

"Punishing U.S. manufacturers and their hardworking employees is hardly putting America first,” he lectured.

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