MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and one of his panelists agreed that President Donald Trump means every word he's saying about the tariffs threatening to wreck the global economy.
The president's allies are split on the double-digit tariffs Trump is imposing on more than 90 trading partners, which he insists are necessary to undo trade deficits and boost American manufacturing.
But the "Morning Joe" host said his comments stood out as sincere.
"We have seen a split in sort of MAGA world," Scarborough said. "We saw it early on immigration between Steve Bannon and Elon Musk, and that got heated. We're now seeing it, I think, in an even more dramatic and possibly conclusive way. Again, between the Steve Bannon side, Peter Navarro side of the world, by the way, [Commerce Secretary] Howard Lutnick wants to be treasury secretary, based on everything I hear. So, you know, the true believers, if you want to know who the true believers are, they are Steve Bannon and they are Peter Navarro and they're Donald Trump, right?"
But the broadcaster noticed something about Trump's comments on the topic, and he asked Eugene Robinson, the veteran Washington Post columnist who announced he was leaving the newspaper over owner Jeff Bezos' editorial policies, whether he had the same observation.
"We're so used to getting this sort of firehose of falsehoods coming out of the White House and the Trump campaign and everything, that when you see something where you go, 'Yeah, he really means what he's saying right now,' it stands out," Scarborough said.
"And when that clip we showed of Donald Trump where he said, 'Listen, I'm the only guy who would do this, nobody else like believes this but me.' Basically, he said, 'If I don't do it now, it's never going to get done.' That comes from a man who has had this as his driving, ideological belief since 1987, [that] the United States is being taken advantage of, our government officials are suckers, and he's the guy who can fix it."
"I'm wondering whether you had the same reaction to me?" Scarborough added. "Say what you will about tariffs and everything, but he believed every word he said right there because he's been saying it since 1987."
Robinson chuckled, saying he had exactly the same reaction to Trump doubling down on his tariffs.
"Fact check, true, for a change," Robinson said. "True, he is the only president who would do this because it is so stupid and crazy and, and goes so against not just every economic theory, but it goes against reality as everybody else knows it. He seems to have a fixed and erroneous view of how balances of trade actually works."
"You know, when you hear, you know, Lutnick and others talking about, you know, making, you know, are we going to have $2-an-hour workers in the United States making tennis shoes, or we're going to have $5-an-hour workers in the United States screwing tiny screws into iPhones?" Robinson added.
"No, we are not. We are not going to have that either. It's going to continue to be done in places where labor is cheaper, or that iPhone is going to cost, you know, $3,000 or whatever because of the labor costs, and that's that's just the reality."
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