GOP senator says 'tariffs is a tax' and Trump understands 'completely'
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) acknowledged during a CNN interview Wednesday that President Trump's escalating tariff wars will impact American consumers — and he said Trump also understands the short-term costs of his push for economic "fairness."
“Tariffs is a tax, and it will be passed on consumers, but it also allows us to have open markets,” he told CNN's Kaitlan Collins. “That is something that the president, who is a businessperson, understands that completely.”
“Everybody knows that,” he said.
Mullin advised patience for Trump’s policies to have their intended effect, even if they temporarily equate to higher prices.
“President Trump will get this economy where it needs to go,” he said. “He said that he was going to do what he's doing with the tariffs.”
“There hasn't been a president that understands this economy better than this president,” Mullin added.
The Trump administration has repeatedly pushed back on characterizing tariffs on imports as tax hikes for Americans, although most economists say they do tend to raise costs for consumers.
“He's actually not implementing tax hikes," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters during Tuesday’s press briefing. "Tariffs are a tax hike on foreign countries that again, have been ripping us off. Tariffs are a tax cut for the American people, and the President is a staunch advocate of tax cuts."
“Ultimately, when we have fair and balanced trade, which the American people have not seen in decades … revenues will stay here, wages will go up, and our country will be made wealthy again,” she added, when pressed by an Associated Press reporter about tariffs ultimately being a tax hike for people in the U.S.
Wall Street has not responded well to Trump's on-again-off-again tariff war, particularly his tit-for-tat with Canada and Mexico. Trump’s oscillating trade policies have sent the stock market reeling in recent days.
The administration got some positive economic news Wednesday, when the Labor Department reported that inflation had cooled.
The European Union, which is made up of 27 countries, is also trading barbs with Trump over imports.
After Trump's 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum took effect Wednesday, the EU announced it would move on a package of counter-tariffs, or "countermeasures," on $28 billion worth of U.S. imports, and look to suspend some existing measures that benefit American business.
"A lot of people didn't understand tariffs, because most presidents just didn't talk about it," Mullin told Collins on Wednesday. "[Other countries] have been taking advantage of us, and we've been losing billions and trillions of dollars by propping up their economy, while our economy is suffering."
Mullin has long defended Trump’s use of tariffs and the tradeoffs in carrying out the president's "America First" agenda.
"When he said he’s putting America first, this is part of it," Mullin said on CNN last week.
“Now, does it hurt our homes? Does it hurt our finances? Does it hurt our communities? Yes, but we understand that we need to get America back on track, and we got to stop the criminal activity,” he added.
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