Trump Press Secretary Struggles to Explain Why His Tariffs Will Work

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed she had the “facts” to back up Donald Trump’s trade war–launching tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China but stopped short of saying anything actually true.

During an interview with Fox News Monday night, host Sean Hannity opined that people weren’t talking enough about the tariffs as a rhetorical tool in negotiations with foreign countries, and instead were too focused on how “bad, bad, bad” they are.

“Why don’t people understand the president is a never-ending negotiator?” Hannity asked.

“He’s a never-ending negotiator, it’s the art of the deal,” Leavitt replied.

“But also, the president has proven, as he did in his first term, that tariffs can bring good-paying jobs back here to the United States of America. They protect critical industries here at home. And President Trump is serious when he says he wants to make America the manufacturing superpower of the world,” she continued.

So, even Trump’s chief propagandist seems a little confused about whether the tariffs are a masterful bluff or a legitimate economic policy. Leavitt seemed intent on painting the tariffs as both—carefully eliding the fact that Trump’s so-called negotiations might better be understood as a global trade war that will inevitably affect the lives of everyday Americans.

It’s also important to note that the tariffs that Trump levied during his first term didn’t actually demonstrate any of what Leavitt claims, so her rationale for his newest round of tariffs falls completely flat.

The first Trump administration placed tariffs on Chinese goods, solar panels, washing machines, steel, and aluminum. And ultimately, this had little impact on the economy, positively or negatively. The tariffs certainly never delivered on Trump’s promise of more factory jobs.

This time, Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican exports and 10 percent tariff on Chinese exports are likely to have a greater impact because they will restrict a wider range of products than his previous tariffs, which were placed on industrial, rather than consumer, products.

During her appearance on Fox News, Leavitt gushed about Trump and claimed to have the statistics to back up his masterful tariff plot.

“So, there’s no spin, it’s all truth. We have the facts on our side, you know, in explaining these tariffs, right? Most people would run away from that argument. But we have the truth, and the statistics, and the facts on our side, and everything the president does is backed by what’s right for the American public,” Leavitt said.

Unfortunately for Leavitt, it’s not enough to simply claim “facts”; one must actually provide them.

China, Canada, and Mexico have already retaliated against Trump’s steep tariffs, placing their own tariffs on U.S. exports. A retaliation clause Trump included in the order he signed last month promises that the U.S. will hit back at any tariffs other countries levy with, you guessed it, more tariffs.

Earlier this month, conservatives were aglow after Trump backed off imposing his tariffs on Mexico, claiming that they’d agreed to send more troops to the Southern border (which the country had already agreed to do). This appeared to prove that the threat of dangerous tariffs he’d been wielding was just that: a threat. In reality, Trump seemed to be responding to the stock market plummeting as he announced tariffs on America’s biggest trading partners.

Now his threat has become all too real, sending the stock market sinking once again.

Russian President Vladimir Putin could not be happier that Donald Trump announced Monday he is pausing U.S. military funding to Ukraine, a once unbelievable move Russia could’ve only dreamed about.

If the pausing of aid “is true, then this is a decision that can really encourage the Kyiv regime to [come to] the peace process,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said of the announcement, Reuters reported. “It is obvious that the United States has been the main supplier of this war so far. If the United States stops being [an arms supplier] or suspends these supplies, it will probably be the best contribution to the cause of peace.”

Trump made the shocking announcement following a horrific meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week, in which he and Vice President JD Vance yelled at Zelenskiy for being ungrateful, told him he was gambling with World War III, and then proceeded to kick him out of the White House, an embarrassing and devastating act from Ukraine’s crucial ally.

Immediately following the meeting, Russian officials couldn’t contain their excitement.

“The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office. And @realDonaldTrump is right: The Kiev regime is ‘gambling with WWIII,’” deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev wrote on X following the meeting.

Now Russia’s perverse goal is even closer—the U.S. has been Ukraine’s largest supplier of defense aid since Russia’s invasion in 2022, and Trump’s aid withdrawal is a nightmare for the war-torn country.

Putin and Russia are still awaiting details, but they are no doubt celebrating Trump’s stupidity behind closed doors.

“We hear (Trump’s) statement about his desire to bring peace to Ukraine, and this is welcome. But we will continue to see how the situation develops in reality,” Peskov’s statement concludes.

Democrats are willing to take the budget fight all the way to a shutdown.

Top Democrats in the House have reportedly spent days asking party members if they’d be willing to boycott the GOP’s budget resolution, and they’ve received very little pushback in return, Politico’s Rachael Bade reported Tuesday.

Representative Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, told NBC News Tuesday that Democrats will vote against the one-year continuing resolution. That leaves Republicans with few other options, as the conservative party simply doesn’t have the votes to push it through without bipartisan support.

DeLauro was a little less diplomatic in private. During a recent meeting between Democratic committee leaders and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries about whether they’d accept the budget extension, DeLauro reportedly shouted, “No fucking way!”

Democrats have pointed to Elon Musk’s effective seizure of the executive branch, as well as his DOGE-directed cuts, as the source of their ire. Even some liberals who have long been anti-shutdown feel that voting for a “clean” spending bill would, in effect, greenlight Musk’s destruction of the federal government.

DOGE, the so-called “government efficiency” organization, has had a wide-ranging grasp on government agencies. So far, its juvenile employees have gained access to and gutted portions of the CDC, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Education, Commerce, Defense, and Energy departments, the IRA, the EPA, FEMA, NOAA, USAID, and, among other agencies, the Federal Aviation Administration, even as the nation experiences an unprecedented uptick in critical aviation crashes.

“At some point you’ve got to have a goddamn backbone. I am not giving them a blank check until September,” an unnamed senior Democratic lawmaker told Politico.

The House GOP passed a budget resolution last week that would gut major social services, including Medicaid, which provides health insurance to more than 72 million Americans. The $880 billion cut is a trade-off for conservatives who were tasked by Donald Trump to extend his 2017 tax plan, which will overwhelmingly benefit corporations and is projected to add as much as $15 trillion to the national deficit.

In the days since the vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson has reportedly “ruled out” the largest cuts to the health insurance program, though he’s failed to offer any specifics as to how his party will do so without affecting Americans’ benefits.

Meanwhile, Republicans at home have faced fiery town halls led by their irate constituents, furious to discover that their elected representatives are selling them down the river in order to advance Trump’s agenda.

Potentially fueled by the nationwide backlash, liberal lawmakers have effectively reversed course on where they stood on the issue just a handful of weeks ago, when the party was upset with its own constituents for failing to see how pushing back on Musk would only further empower him to burn more agencies.

“People now feel like the more perilous position is giving votes without the perception there’s been any change in accountability,” a senior House Democratic aide told Politico. “The incentive structure right now is not to provide votes for them.”

Congress has until March 14 to find a solution for funding the government.

In yet another attack on the Constitution, President Donald Trump is threatening to pull funding from schools, colleges, and universities that allow “illegal protests.”

“Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Tuesday morning. “NO MASKS,” he added, to boot.

Trump’s threat is a direct assault on the First Amendment, which protects the “right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” a core pillar to the functioning of a peaceful democracy.

It’s not clear what exactly Trump considers an “illegal protest”—but this is just the latest move in his crackdown on school funding and institutional neutrality in higher education. In January, he signed an executive order on combating antisemitism on college campuses, a clear response to the wave of monthslong protests on college campuses against Israel’s deadly attack on Gaza.

A fact sheet that accompanied the order specifically targeted pro-Palestinian international students. “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before,” the fact sheet read.

Also in January, Trump signed a sweeping executive order that would defund schools that teach any kids about “critical race theory” or gender.

And on Monday, the Trump administration announced it would review federal grants and contracts with Columbia University over allegations of failure to address antisemitism, despite the school taking strict disciplinary actions against pro-Palestinian protesters, including calling the New York Police Department on protesters to arrest students and, most recently, the expulsion of two students from Barnard College.

A total of $5 billion in grant commitments will be reviewed by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, and the General Services Administration.

“We look forward to ongoing work with the new federal administration to fight antisemitism, and we will continue to make all efforts to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our students, faculty, and staff” Columbia said in a statement in response to the announcement.

After Donald Trump’s tariffs against China, Mexico, and Canada went into effect Tuesday, the three countries retaliated with tariffs of their own against American goods.

In response to Trump’s 20 percent tariffs on all Chinese products, China announced tariffs of up to 15 percent on imports of U.S. chicken, wheat, corn, and cotton and 10 percent tariffs on U.S. soybeans, sorghum, pork, beef, seafood, fruit, vegetables, and dairy products. These tariffs will take effect beginning March 10, with goods already in transit being exempt until April 12. In addition, China is also introducing more controls on business with certain American companies.

Chinese customs officials said they will suspend American lumber imports, claiming “forest pests such as bark beetles and longhorn beetles” were found. The country also suspended soybean import qualifications from three U.S. companies, claiming it found traces of fungi and seed-coating agents.

China imported $24.7 billion of farm products from the U.S. in 2024, about 14 percent of all U.S. farm exports. A spokesperson for China’s foreign minister, Lin Jian, said that the U.S. had repaid kindness with enmity with its tariffs.

“I would like to reiterate that the Chinese people have never been afraid of evil, do not believe in ghosts, and have never been bullied,” Jian said.

Canada’s response to America’s 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods amounts to 25 percent tariffs on $155 billion of American goods, with tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods going into effect immediately and the rest going into effect in 21 days, to “remain in place until the U.S. trade action is withdrawn,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement.

“Because of the tariffs imposed by the U.S., Americans will pay more for groceries, gas, and cars, and potentially lose thousands of jobs,” Trudeau added. “Tariffs will disrupt an incredibly successful trading relationship. They will violate the very trade agreement that was negotiated by President Trump in his last term.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that the country will respond to U.S. tariffs of 25 percent with tariffs of its own, to be announced at a public event in Mexico City’s central plaza on Sunday.

“There is no motive or reason nor justification that supports this decision that will affect our people and our nations,” Sheinbaum said.

All of this indicates that Trump has set off a trade war that is completely unnecessary and based on the president’s own delusions. Supposedly, Trump thinks that he can replace the government’s revenue from income taxes with revenue from tariffs, even planning to create a pointless “External Revenue Service.”

In the real world, however, the tariffs will wreck the economy, cause the stock market to plummet further, and cause negative side effects felt by the average American, such as higher grocery and utility bills. It’s not clear when or if Trump will see the folly in his plans, but in the meantime, the public is going to feel the effect on their wallets.

Donald Trump’s position on Russia has become so prostrate that even Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade has been forced to urge sanity. 

Following the Trump administration’s decision to pause military aid to Ukraine, Kilmeade took to social media to issue a frank reminder—one that was much needed by the U.S. president.

“Can we all remember @KremlinRussia_E is the bad guy,” Kilmeade wrote on X Monday night, tagging Russian President Vladimir Putin’s account.

“They invaded—they kidnap kids—Whatever happens—Ukraine can not lose—eastern. Europe will be next,” Kilmeade added. 

The Fox News host, who once bent over backward to justify Trump’s request for “the kind of generals Hitler had,” has apparently broken with the president over his foreign policy, which even the Kremlin has said “largely coincides” with its vision. 

The Bulwark’s Tim Miller poked at Kilmeade on X, writing, “Maybe DM the secretary of defense.”

Trump has made escalating efforts to convince the American people of the very opposite: that Putin will “keep his word” on a peace deal, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy isn’t interested in peace at all.  And this is in no way the beginning of Trump’s smear campaign: He has long made efforts to undermine Zelenskiy and push false narratives about Ukraine. 

In fact, Trump’s first impeachment hinged on his allegedly pressuring Zelenskiy to dig up dirt on Joe Biden. How exactly did he pressure Zelenskiy to do what he wanted? He withheld military aid. Did it work? Not at all. 

Trump’s efforts to recast the villain in this story seem to be working. A recent CBS News/YouGov poll found that the percentage of Americans who viewed Russia as “the enemy” had dropped from 64 percent in 2023 to 34 percent. 

Surprise, surprise: Vice President JD Vance isn’t taking Russia’s invasion of Ukraine seriously.

During an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity Monday night, Donald Trump’s sniveling sidekick made light of Russia’s ongoing incursion into Ukrainian territory, following the Trump administration’s decision to pause deliveries of military aid to the war-torn country.

At one point, Sean Hannity said that President Joe Biden’s administration had “called [Vladimir] Putin every name in the book.”

“And he still invaded anyway!” Vance interjected, rushing to get the words out before letting out a breathy laugh at his own observation.

“OK, he still invaded anyway,” Hannity replied. “Well remember, it depends if it’s a ‘minor incursion.’”

Hannity was referring to Biden’s gaffe calling a potential invasion into Ukraine a “minor incursion” in 2022. Meanwhile, Trump had cheerleaded Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014, claiming that Crimeans “would rather be with Russia,” but it seems that conservatives choose not to remember that nearly as often.

Vance’s joke isn’t so much offensive as it is stupid, considering that with Trump in charge, Russia intends to continue to pillage Ukraine. Only now, the U.S. intends to rubber-stamp it.

During the interview, Vance defended the Trump administration’s decision to pause deliveries of military aid to Ukraine, and claimed that Europeans were doing a “disservice” to Ukrainians by continuing to fund Kyiv’s efforts to defend itself from Russian aggression.

The president’s first speech to a joint session of Congress will take place Tuesday at 9:00 p.m., but some key members of the intended audience won’t be in attendance.

A growing faction of Democrats are planning to boycott Donald Trump’s unofficial State of the Union address in protest against the administration’s violent agenda, Elon Musk’s apparent takeover of the federal government, and Trump’s abysmal negotiations with Ukraine.

Washington Senator Patty Murray announced Monday that she wouldn’t be in the crowd during Trump’s first major speech to the legislative branch, posting on X that the true state of the union is that Trump is “spitting in the face of the law.”

“He is letting an unelected billionaire fire cancer researchers and wreck federal agencies like the Social Security Administration at will,” Murray wrote.

Murray has been joined by Senators Ron Wyden, Chris Murphy, and Don Beyer, all of whom are planning to skip.

Members from the House are also joining in on the protest. Colorado Representative Diana DeGette announced Tuesday morning she would also be staying away from the speech. Speaking with NBC affiliate 9 News, DeGette said that the Trump administration’s “barrage of illegal attacks against public servants and vulnerable groups, have disgraced and embarrassed our country.”

The plan flies in the face of the silent protest that top Democrats in Congress have tried to organize. In a letter issued Monday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries urged his party to make a “strong” and “dignified” presence at Trump’s speech, rather than run away.

“It is important to have a strong, determined and dignified Democratic presence in the chamber,” Jeffries wrote. “The House as an institution belongs to the American people, and as their representatives, we will not be run off the block or bullied.”

While Donald Trump took questions from the press at the White House Monday afternoon, the stock market plummeted, and Fox News displayed a graphic showing the dip while carrying Trump’s remarks live. 

Trump told reporters that he planned to enact his long-threatened 25 percent tariffs against goods from Mexico and Canada and 10 percent tariffs against goods from China starting Tuesday, to which the Dow Jones, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 did not respond well. Fox News, along with their usual breaking news chyron, also had the Dow index displayed while Trump was speaking, showing a fall of more than 650 points.

Trump’s remarks were preceded by his early afternoon announcement on Truth Social addressed to “the Great Farmers of the United States.” 

“Get ready to start making a lot of agricultural product to be sold INSIDE of the United States. Tariffs will go on external product on April 2nd. Have fun!” Trump posted. But it seems that there was little fun to be had in the stock market based on the fears of higher prices and other  negative ripple effects.

This, coupled with fewer food imports from three of America’s largest trading partners, will ultimately lead to higher food prices across the country, something that Trump campaigned against during the 2024 election and that ultimately played a factor in his victory. Plus, the prices of various other goods, from cars to electronics to over-the-counter pills, also will likely see a sharp increase. 

Don’t expect Trump to take responsibility for a sinking stock market or higher prices, though. He’s already saying that rising inflation isn’t his fault and has tacitly admitted that his tariffs will cause prices to go up. His administration is even discussing how to juke economic numbers to try and hide how badly Trump’s radical changes, including those from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, are hurting the economy. It looks like our wallets are about to have a rough spring.

Donald Trump is scheduled to speak with several Cabinet members Monday regarding Ukraine policy and the possibility of ending military assistance to the beleaguered Eastern European nation.

That could include withholding equipment, such as ammunition and radars, as well as limiting the amount of intelligence shared with the Ukrainian military, according to a U.S. official who spoke with The Washington Post.

The meeting will involve Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, and special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, the last of whom met with Russian officials last month regarding a potential peace deal.

During a White House press conference earlier Monday, Trump repeatedly ducked reporters’ questions as to whether his administration’s actions had aligned U.S. policy with Moscow. Rather than saying “no,” Trump went on a breathy rant claiming that the war never would have happened if he was in office at the onset of the conflict.

“I wanna see it end fast. I don’t want to see this go on for years and years. Now, President Zelenskiy supposedly made a statement today in AP—I’m not a big fan of AP, so maybe it was an incorrect statement—but he said he thinks the war is gonna go on for a long time, uh, and he better not be right about that, that’s all I’m saying,” Trump said.

Russian forces crossed the Ukrainian border on February 24, 2022, which Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to justify by falsely claiming that he needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine. The U.S. and Russia opened discussions at a meeting in Saudi Arabia last month, seeking a conclusion to the three-year war, but the assembly conspicuously excluded Ukrainian leadership.

When asked whether he had discussed the ending of military aid to Ukraine, however, Trump said that “things” were happening “as we speak.”

“I haven’t even talked about that right now,” Trump told reporters. “I mean, right now, we’ll see what happens. A lot of things are happening right now, literally as we speak.”

On Friday, Trump and JD Vance overtly showed where their loyalties lie: Seated in front of the press in the White House, the pair refused to let Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speak, allowed a conservative reporter to mock Zelenskiy’s wartime attire, and effectively leveraged the critical meeting for measly political gain by defending Putin at the cost of denigrating former American officials. And in doing so, they challenged America’s strongest alliances while ceding the world stage to its adversaries.