Economist Justin Wolfers left MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace "speechless" after he used a sexual analogy to describe President Donald Trump's latest tariff move.
From the White House lawn on Wednesday, Trump blasted Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for refusing to cut interest rates.
"Why, you might ask? Well, it could have something to do with Donald Trump's tariff policy, which remains in constant flux, completely incoherent," Wallace said.
She cited a CNBC report stating that Powell and his colleagues have been hesitant about adjusting rates due to numerous "open questions" about Trump's economy.
Wolfers, a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan, explained that Powell made it clear in his speech that he's unclear whether he'd be deciding an interest rate for a high-tariff world or a low one.
Wallace pointed out Trump's pledge of "90 Deals in 90 Days," which has only one on the books. It prompted her to wonder what the future holds for the trade war.
"We heard, actually earlier this week, from the president that he said at some point in the next week or so, he's going to send a letter to everyone, letting them know how the negotiations turned out," Wolfers said. "So, Nicolle, I don't know if I'm allowed to say this on television, but sending a letter is to making a trade deal as masturbation is to sex. You're not really involving the other party at all, and you're not really figuring out the ways to exploit the gains from trade. And you know, we didn't need this whole mess. He didn't need to impose high import taxes on Americans. If all he wanted to do was impose tariffs, if all he wanted to do was send people letters, we could have done this 90 days ago."
A dumbstruck Wallace confessed, "Well, you left me a little speechless."
She noted that Trump's brand is about making deals, and to Wolfers' point, Trump has completely failed.
Wolfers said he wouldn't dabble in "Trumpology" but said, "If you always made the bet that moving forward on any particular economic agenda would require a little bit of hard work, they repeatedly fail to do it."
He went on to call the tariffs "one of the most absurd formulas any economist, any economist has ever seen that caused Wall Street to just blow up."
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