President Donald Trump’s feud with Walmart is intensifying. After the retail giant warned that its prices will go up due to Trump’s tariffs, he erupted on Truth Social and even threatened Walmart to get it to “eat” the costs of his levies. Then White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated the threat to reporters. Amusingly enough, all this constitutes an admission that other countries don’t pay the costs of the tariffs, as he keeps claiming—we do. We talked to Lindsay Owens, an economist who’s also executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative. She explains how Trump accidentally undermined his case for tariffs, why this is so damaging given Walmart’s massive presence in MAGA America, and what all this reveals about Trump’s growing political weakness on the economy. Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.
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Trump’s Angry Walmart Tirade Backfires, Wrecking His Own Tariff Scam
As Trump’s war with Walmart intensifies over its truth-telling about his tariffs, an economist explains how this exposes the fraudulence of his rationale for them—and exposes the political weakness of his position.

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