'Not going to be brainwashed': Fox News pundit slams Trump's tariff 'screw up'

Fox News contributor Leslie Marshall blasted President Donald Trump for a "screw up" after he walked back his so-called reciprocal tariffs for 90 days.

During the Sunday Fox News Media Buzz program, host Howard Kurtz pointed out that White House Secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed reporters for not understanding Trump's "Art of the Deal" in response to the decision to postpone tariffs.

"I would say that, you know, there are many people in this country, even some that voted for the president, they're not going to drink the Kool-Aid, Howard, and they're not going to be brainwashed by this," Marshall replied. "We have economists. We have very staunch Republican Trump-supporting financial wizards out there that said this was bad."

"This was not a deal. This was not artful. This was a big screw up."

The Fox News contributor noted that stock market gains prompted by the tariff pause were lost within 24 hours.

"You know, it's easy for people who have millions or billions of dollars, but for people that live paycheck to paycheck, for people that are putting away money in their 529s for their kids to go to college, for people that are putting money away in an IRA, a 401(k), for the future, elderly people who are worried that if they lose Social Security, well, if I don't have A, then at least I'll have B, the money I put aside," she continued. "Those were really, really, really real fears. Those are a crisis level, and those still continue to be a crisis level."

"When we have continued talks of a recession, when we have continued talks of what's going to happen with the market, because this is 90 days, Howard, so there's a lot of people out there that are still holding their breath, biting their nails, very concerned."

Fox News panelist Tomi Lahren pushed back: "It doesn't really matter when you look at it if it was the plan all along or if it was a shift or if it was a change... He is willing to change his strategy."

ALSO READ:'All hands on deck': Democrats unleash new strategy to derail Trump

"But I would also ask, Leslie, and those in the media, what is the alternative?" she said. "We continue to be ripped off by the rest of the world, and we just continue down this path."

"But the reality is it didn't take one presidency to ruin manufacturing in the United States," Marshall shot back. "Sadly, it won't take one presidency to bring it back."

"And Americans, when they go to Walmart, as an example, or others are buying products made in China," she noted. "MAGA hats are made in China. So this is not something that's going to happen overnight."

Watch the video below from Fox News or at the link.