WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) joined Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream this weekend to push back against President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs imposed last week.
Following Trump’s announcement of tariffs last week, the U.S. has begun collecting a 10% "baseline" tariff on nearly all imports and will soon begin collecting “reciprocal” tariffs as high as 50% on approximately 60 countries, including many of our closest allies and largest trading partners. Financial markets have seen the largest declines since the start of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
In his interview, Senator Coons highlighted the pain that these tariffs will cause for all American families, regardless of whether or not they’re invested in the stock market. The price of everyday goods will quickly jump for everything from fruits and vegetables to consumer electronics to clothing, hitting working-class families hardest. Even American manufacturers will see their costs soar, as they often rely on inputs created overseas.
A video and partial transcript of Senator Coons’ interview are available below.
Senator Coons: President Trump announced tariffs this week on almost every country on Earth, including many with which we have a trade surplus. What my colleague, Senator Mullin, just said about how President Trump is rebalancing trade and he’s going after those that have a trade surplus with us, doesn’t account for the fact that he’s slapping tariffs on every country, including our closest partners and allies. That’s going to raise prices for middle Americans. They’re going to pay more for fruits and vegetables, gas, cars, furniture, clothing. It’s going to make America less affordable, not more affordable, which was a key campaign promise of President Trump’s.
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Shannon Bream: Some autoworkers, some farmers, some ranchers––what do you say to them? They think that this is going to actually help them, that they’ve been at a very unfair disadvantage.
Senator Coons: I would say to them that targeted tariffs that are clearly focused on a few countries where we have bad trade practices, and deep trade imbalances, can be smart economic policy and can help protect American farmers and ranchers and American manufacturers. That’s not what Donald Trump is doing. He’s slapping massive tariffs on almost every country in the world, and it’s hard to explain or justify some of the tariffs he’s imposing.
In the coming weeks and months, when millions of Americans see their 401Ks dissolve, the stock market lost 10% just in the last two days of last week, and when hundreds of millions of Americans pay more for everything that they need for daily living––the groceries that they buy, and the food that they put on the table, and the cost of housing, I think they’re going to be upset and I think we’re going to see long term, broad economic damage, not for a few targeted industries or companies but across the entire American landscape.