MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace flattened White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who clashed with an Associated Press reporter for fact-checking her on tariffs.
“He’s actually not implementing tax hikes. Tariffs are a tax hike on foreign countries that, again, have been ripping us off,” Leavitt claimed in the Tuesday briefing. “Tariffs are a tax cut for the American people, and the president is a staunch advocate for tax cuts.”
AP reporter Josh Boak shot back, “I’m sorry, have you ever paid a tariff? Because I have. They don’t get charged on foreign companies, they get charged on importers.”
Leavitt fumed, implying it was a personal attack on her, “I think it’s insulting that you’re trying to test my knowledge of economics, and the decision that this president has made. I now regret giving a question to The Associated Press.”
The Council on Foreign Relations and the World Economic Forum have said a tariff is a tax. In fact, as the Century Foundation explained, "most economists strongly disagree" that a tariff will be passed on as a bill to the country of origin.
The Atlantic's Annie Lowrey told Wallace the same thing on Tuesday.
"So, tariffs are taxes paid by American consumers, they raise prices for American businesses and American households. And American businesses and households were already suffering with high costs. You can see that in egg prices. You can see that in housing prices. You can see that in childcare prices. The Trump administration promised to tackle the cost of living crisis, and this is going to make it worse," said Lowrey.
Wallace played the clip of Leavitt, commenting, "I mean, she's awash in regret and remorse and offense, but she's either tragically uninformed or lying. There is no economist that's been tapped to sit in Donald Trump's Cabinet who would testify under oath to what she just said, 'tariffs are a tax cut for the American people.' Simply the opposite is reality."
A Washington Post poll of 1,000 voters found that 6 in 10 disapprove of tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China.
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