Nicolle Wallace cannot tell if Donald Trump’s press secretary is uninformed or lying to the American people about tariffs.
The MSNBC host commented Tuesday on Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt getting heated with an Associated Press reporter after being further prodded with questions on if she knew how tariffs work after she said they would be a tax credit for the American people.
“She’s either tragically uniformed or lying,” Wallace said. “There is no economist that’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 the reality.”
Watch the full “Deadline: White House” segment via MSNBC in the video below:
The White House press room dust-up happened after Leavitt was questioned by AP reporter Josh Boak about Trump’s insistence to continue raising tariffs.
“He’s actually not implementing tax hikes,” Leavitt said. “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. As you know, he campaigned on no taxes on tips, no taxes on overtime, no taxes on Social Security benefits. He is committed to all three of those things, and he expects Congress to pass them later this year.”
Boak followed up by asking the press secretary if she had ever paid a tariff herself. He was emphatic that “they don’t get charged on foreign companies. They get charged on the importers.”
“Ultimately, when we have fair and balanced trade — which the American people have not seen in decades — as I said at the beginning revenues will stay here, wages will go up, and our country will be made wealthy again,” Leavitt responded. “And I think it’s insulting that you’re trying to test my knowledge of economics and the decisions that this president has made. I’m now regret giving a question to The Associated Press.”
Watch the full clip of Wallace on Leavitt and Trump’s tariffs above.
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