Sen. Markwayne Mullin made a frank admission on Wednesday, telling CNN that President Donald Trump's tariffs are effectively a tax that consumers will be stuck paying.
How was this not followed up with “Mr. Trump has repeatedly said that his tariffs are a tax that other countries pay to the US, that US prices will not go up as a result of these tariffs, and in fact has once said he wanted to create the External Revenue Service just to handle all the huge checks that these governments are going to pay. What is your response to that?”
Now we all know this would either be answered by more GOP doublespeak or by the Senator pulling a temper tantrum, walking out, and claiming the reporter was hostile. But damn these people need to start asking the hard questions. Trump has these people tripping all over themselves trying to keep their bullshit straight. It’s not hard to get them in a position where they are making contradictory statements and they need to start being called out on it live and in real time.
Just like when Trump says that these tariffs are paid for by the affected government. One of these reporters needs to get Trump on record again saying that the foreign governments are the ones paying the tariffs. Then, follow up with “These countries have imposed retaliatory tariffs against US goods. Has the United States started writing checks to these governments to pay for the tariffs being imposed?” And when Trump gives the inevitable “No”, then ask “So what makes you think they’re the ones writing checks to us?”
And it needs to be done live and in real time so Trump doesn’t have the opportunity to edit it.
How was this not followed up with “Mr. Trump has repeatedly said that his tariffs are a tax that other countries pay to the US, that US prices will not go up as a result of these tariffs, and in fact has once said he wanted to create the External Revenue Service just to handle all the huge checks that these governments are going to pay. What is your response to that?”
Now we all know this would either be answered by more GOP doublespeak or by the Senator pulling a temper tantrum, walking out, and claiming the reporter was hostile. But damn these people need to start asking the hard questions. Trump has these people tripping all over themselves trying to keep their bullshit straight. It’s not hard to get them in a position where they are making contradictory statements and they need to start being called out on it live and in real time.
Just like when Trump says that these tariffs are paid for by the affected government. One of these reporters needs to get Trump on record again saying that the foreign governments are the ones paying the tariffs. Then, follow up with “These countries have imposed retaliatory tariffs against US goods. Has the United States started writing checks to these governments to pay for the tariffs being imposed?” And when Trump gives the inevitable “No”, then ask “So what makes you think they’re the ones writing checks to us?”
And it needs to be done live and in real time so Trump doesn’t have the opportunity to edit it.