MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace called out White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt after she clashed with an Associated Press reporter over misleading claims about tariffs during a Tuesday press briefing.
“He’s actually not implementing tax hikes. Tariffs are a tax hike on foreign countries that, again, have been ripping us off,” Leavitt stated. “Tariffs are a tax cut for the American people, and the president is a staunch advocate for tax cuts.”
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AP reporter Josh Boak quickly challenged her assertion, pointing out the fundamental flaw in her argument. “I’m sorry, have you ever paid a tariff? Because I have. They don’t get charged on foreign companies, they get charged on importers,” he retorted.
Leavitt, visibly frustrated, took offense at the pushback, implying that Boak’s response was a personal attack. “I think it’s insulting that you’re trying to test my knowledge of economics and the decision that this president has made. I now regret giving a question to The Associated Press,” she fumed.
However, leading economic institutions have consistently stated that tariffs function as taxes. Both the Council on Foreign Relations and the World Economic Forum agree that tariffs are a tax, while the Century Foundation has explained that “most economists strongly disagree” with the notion that tariffs are absorbed by foreign countries rather than passed on to U.S. consumers.
The Atlantic’s Annie Lowrey reinforced this economic consensus in an interview with Wallace later that day. “So, tariffs are taxes paid by American consumers. They raise prices for American businesses and American households. And American businesses and households were already suffering from high costs. You can see that in egg prices. You can see that in housing prices. You can see that in childcare prices.
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The Trump administration promised to tackle the cost of living crisis, and this is going to make it worse,” Lowrey explained. Wallace aired the clip of Leavitt’s remarks, offering sharp criticism. “I mean, she’s awash in regret and remorse and offense, but she’s either tragically uninformed or lying.
No economist’s been tapped to sit in Donald Trump’s Cabinet who would testify under oath to what she just said, ‘tariffs are a tax cut for the American people.’ Simply the opposite is reality.” Public opinion appears to align against tariffs. A Washington Post poll of 1,000 voters found that six in ten disapprove of tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China. As the debate over tariffs intensifies, the administration continues to face scrutiny over its economic policies.
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