Speaker Johnson Asked Point Blank: Should Trump Move Forward With Tariffs Tomorrow?

yesterday

At today's House Republican leadership press briefing, Speaker Johnson was asked about President Trump's tariff plans.

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Transcript

00:00Johnson, do you think that the President should move forward tomorrow with tariffs, with imposing tariffs?

00:06He's made very clear that he's doing this in the executive branch under his executive authority, and it doesn't involve Congress in that way.

00:16Look, you have to trust the President's instincts on the economy, OK?

00:21Why? You know, this isn't blind faith.

00:23Remember what he accomplished in the first administration before COVID, we had the greatest economy in the history of the world, not the U.S., the whole world.

00:30Every demographic is doing better because we cut taxes, we cut regulations and we made a better economic environment for everybody to succeed.

00:39And he is going about that same plan to bring that about.

00:43And tariffs is a component of that. And we'll see how it all develops.

00:48I mean, the reciprocal tariff policy is one that makes a lot of common sense.

00:52I mean, you look at the trade disparity between many nations and much of this began after World War Two.

00:58The rationale apparently was, well, we need to rebuild Europe and America emerges as the great superpower.

01:05So we should have this imbalance. It's fair. It's you know, this is what we need.

01:09Well, that carried on for generations and we're well beyond World War Two now.

01:13And this is a different world. It's a much more integrated, complex economy.

01:17And the president's absolutely right when he says that we have to think about America's interests first,

01:23because if we're not, if we don't, we're not going to maintain our status as the great superpower.

01:27And when he says let's have free trade and fair trade, I think the reciprocal tariff policy makes sense.

01:33If somebody has a hundred plus percent tariff on imports of U.S. goods and we have virtually nothing, why don't we settle that balance?

01:42If we raise and match their tariff policy, I think ultimately what happens is you get back down to a free trade agreement

01:48that these countries that are engaged in this disparity, this raw deal for Americans for so long,

01:54it'll get their attention and they'll, I think, reduce their tariffs on us.

01:58Then you get back to a free and fair trade situation.

02:03So look, we'll see what happens. I think it's going to go forward and it may be rocky in the beginning,

02:09but I think that this will make sense for Americans and it will help all Americans.

02:13So, yes, Scott.

Speaker Johnson Asked Point Blank: Should Trump Move Forward With Tariffs Tomorrow?

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