Democratic strategists took to CNN Thursday to implore party leaders to stop talking and start taking action to show how painful President Donald Trump's tariffs are to average Americans.
Anchor Kate Bolduan played a clip of Trump quipping at Wednesday's Cabinet meeting, "Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know? And maybe the two dolls would cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally."
Ana Navarro began, "It's just, it's so disconnected from everyday reality of Americans. It's so tone deaf. It's so 'Marie Antoinette, let them eat cake.' And I think it's part of the the problem is that Donald Trump is not only surrounded by a bunch of sycophants who don't push back on him, but they're rich sycophants."
She then talked about the bigger picture Trump's tariffs mean for the economy.
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"That means less shipping, less workers in the ports. It means less drivers taking the inventory to the stores. It means less people working in the store to check out those items, to put them on the shelves. The trickle down on the economy is enormous of not having those items come in."
Bolduan asked if Democrats were "harnessing that message correctly" for voters.
"No, I don't," Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky answered bluntly. "I don't think Democrats are doing what Ana just did — what some of us do every day — which is, go out there and say plainly what is happening."
She added sarcastically, "Maybe Chuck Schumer can write a sternly-worded letter to President Trump about the dolls, because that's basically what we've seen out of leadership."
"If I were Democrats, I would stop with the letter writing campaigns. I would stop with the sit-ins on the steps of the Capitol. I would get my butt to the Port of Los Angeles right now, which is seeing ships come in with virtually nothing on them because of these tariffs. And I would point to the fact that this is the impact — the real-life impact — for jobs, for consumers, for Americans, about what is happening right now. Get out of D.C!"
