Trump Tariffs Disturb His Own Supporters in Conservative Media: ‘Really Problematic'
President Trump has described his new tariff plan as a 'beautiful thing to behold' — but not everyone in conservative media feels the same way.
A number of prominent right-leaning voices have shared their displeasure with the president's 'liberation day' tariffs since he announced them last week, including Ben Shapiro, who started his show off on Monday by sharing his thoughts on the matter.
Shapiro said there are a few cases where tariffs are an 'important' and 'totally understandable' tool, including when they can be used to leverage other countries to give the U.S. better trade deals. But he said the Trump Administration's belief that 'tariffs are good' and trade wars are 'easy to win' is 'really problematic.'
'The idea that this is inherently good, it makes the American economy strong is wrongheaded. It is untrue,' Shapiro said. 'The idea that is going to result in mass reshoring of manufacturing is also untrue.'
Shapiro later called the chart President Trump showed off last week at the White House, highlighting the new tariffs, was 'ridiculous.' The Daily Wire co-founder, who has more than 7 million YouTube subscribers, said stocks on Wall Street have plummeted because of the uncertainty surrounding the president's long-term plans.
'It is absolutely unclear what President Trump is thinking at this point — and herein lies the problem,' Shapiro said. 'You have a vast combination of radical uncertainty and policy that is being spouted by members of the administration that is overtly bad. There is no one in the administration who's making the overtly good case; there are many people in the administration who are making bad to strained cases right now.'
His criticism stands out, considering he was one of President Trump's most vocal supporters in the lead up to the 2024 election; Shapiro was also in attendance last month for the president's speech before Congress. But he is not the only conservative commentator who has questioned the tariffs.
Ryan Saavedra, a reporter for The Daily Wire with more than 358,000 followers on X, has re-posted several comments that are skeptical the tariffs will work. He also shared a screenshot of a text from a right-wing friend on Sunday that blasted the 'insane' tariffs.
'You start messing around with people's investments and 401(k)s and you're going to lose support — fast,' Saavedra posted.
Saagar Enjeti, the right-leaning co-host of 'Breaking Points' on YouTube, which has 1.42 million subscribers, has expressed his reservations about the president's plan as well.
'Not joking: the White House would have been better off using ChatGPT than whatever the f–k this is,' Enjeti posted on X last week in response to a picture of the president holding up a cardboard breakdown of his new tariffs.
Enjeti reiterated his irritation with the new tariff plan on Monday's episode of 'Breaking Points.' He said that, while he is generally 'pro-tariff,' the rollout from the Trump Administration has been messy and goes beyond he discussed on the campaign trail last year.
'Nobody — nobody — this is why the markets crashed as they were — floated a 35-40% tariff,' Enjeti said.
'That's where this is 10 times out of step even with allegedly many of the things that he sold on the campaign trail. And that is why you're seeing the level of freak out,' he continued. 'And very soon, real voters, you are going to feel this in a very real way. Screw retirement. We're talking layoffs.'
In the two days following Trump's tariff announcement last week, the markets saw $5.4 trillion in value evaporate while the S&P 500 plummeted to its lowest level in 11 months. Friday's sell-off market the biggest single-day decline for the S&P 500 and Dow since COVID-19 rocked the market in March 2020, while the Nasdaq suffered its biggest single-day hit since 2020 on Thursday.
President Trump, in a post on Truth Social before markets opened on Monday, called on investors to hang tough while global economies adjusted to his tariffs.
'The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO,' the president posted. 'Don't be Weak! Don't be Stupid! Don't be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!'
Elon Musk does not appear to be as patient about the tariffs as the president, though.
The X owner — who prominently backed President Trump during the 2024 election and has been spearheading the new Department of Government Efficiency for the administration — posted a video on Monday of economist Milton Friedman explaining how a pencil is made with parts from all over the world. The post was viewed by many as a stealth rebuke of President Trump's plan, a day after he said the U.S. is 'not going to lose a trillion dollars for the privilege of buying pencils from China.'The post Trump Tariffs Disturb His Own Supporters in Conservative Media: 'Really Problematic' appeared first on TheWrap.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
27 minutes ago
- The Hill
Senate expected to pass crypto bill without addressing Trump's investments
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is expected to approve legislation Tuesday that would regulate a form of cryptocurrency known as stablecoins, the first of what is expected to be a wave of crypto legislation from Congress that the industry hopes will bolster its legitimacy and reassure consumers. The fast-moving legislation, which will be sent to the House for potential revisions, comes on the heels of a 2024 campaign cycle where the crypto industry ranked among the top political spenders in the country, underscoring its growing influence in Washington and beyond. Eighteen Democratic senators have shown support for the legislation as it has advanced, siding with the Republican majority in the 53-47 Senate. If passed, it would become the second major bipartisan bill to advance through the Senate this year, following the Laken Riley Act on immigration enforcement in January. Still, most Democrats oppose the bill. They have raised concerns that the measure does little to address President Donald Trump's personal financial interests in the crypto space. 'We weren't able to include certainly everything we would have wanted, but it was a good bipartisan effort,' said Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., on Monday. She added, 'This is an unregulated area that will now be regulated.' Known as the GENIUS Act, the bill would establish guardrails and consumer protections for stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency typically pegged to the U.S. dollar. The acronym stands for 'Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins.' It's expected to pass Tuesday, since it only requires a simple majority vote — and it already cleared its biggest procedural hurdle last week in a 68-30 vote. But the bill has faced more resistance than initially expected. There is a provision in the bill that bans members of Congress and their families from profiting off stablecoins. But that prohibition does not extend to the president and his family, even as Trump builds a crypto empire from the White House. Trump hosted a private dinner last month at his golf club with top investors in a Trump-branded meme coin. His family holds a large stake in World Liberty Financial, a crypto project that provides yet another avenue where investors are buying in and enriching the president's relatives. World Liberty has launched its own stablecoin, USD1. The administration is broadly supportive of crypto's growth and its integration into the economy. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week said the legislation could help push the U.S. stablecoin market beyond $2 trillion by the end of 2028. Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase — the nation's largest crypto exchange and a major advocate for the bill — has met with Trump and praised his early moves on crypto. This past weekend, Coinbase was among the more prominent brands that sponsored a parade in Washington commemorating the Army's 250th anniversary — an event that coincided with Trump's 79th birthday. But the crypto industry emphasizes that they view the legislative effort as bipartisan, pointing to champions on each side of the aisle. 'The GENIUS Act will be the most significant digital assets legislation ever to pass the U.S. Senate,' Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott, R-S.C., said ahead of a key vote last week. 'It's the product of months of bipartisan work.' The bill did hit one rough patch in early May, when a bloc of Senate Democrats who had previously supported the bill reversed course and voted to block it from advancing. That prompted new negotiations involving Senate Republicans, Democrats and the White House, which ultimately produced the compromise version expected to win passage Tuesday. 'There were many, many changes that were made. And ultimately, it's a much better deal because we were all at the table,' Alsobrooks said. Still, the bill leaves unresolved concerns over presidential conflicts of interest — an issue that remains a source of tension within the Democratic caucus. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has been among the most outspoken as the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, warning that the bill creates a 'super highway' for Trump corruption. She has also warned that the bill would allow major technology companies, such as Amazon and Meta, to launch their own stablecoins. If the stablecoin legislation passes the Senate on Tuesday, it still faces several hurdles before reaching the president's desk. It must clear the narrowly held Republican majority in the House, where lawmakers may try to attach a broader market structure bill — sweeping legislation that could make passage through the Senate more difficult. Trump has said he wants stablecoin legislation on his desk before Congress breaks for its August recess, now just under 50 days away.
27 minutes ago
Federal appeals court set to hold hearing over Trump National Guard deployment in California
The legal battle over the Trump administration's deployment of the National Guard in California heads to a federal appeals court on Tuesday. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will preside over a remote hearing regarding California's challenge to President Donald Trump 's federalization of the state's National Guard troops amid protests over immigration enforcement in the Los Angeles area. Last week, a federal judge in California issued a temporary restraining order that would have blocked Trump's deployment of the troops and returned control of the California National Guard to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who did not consent to the Guard's activation. However, following an appeal by the Trump administration, a panel of three judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an administrative stay of the lower court's order, dealing the Trump administration a temporary reprieve to what would have been a major reversal of its policy on the protests in Los Angeles. The three-judge panel -- made up of two judges nominated by Trump and one nominated by former President Joe Biden -- scheduled the hearing on the matter for Tuesday afternoon. The district judge's order called Trump's actions "illegal." "At this early stage of the proceedings, the Court must determine whether the President followed the congressionally mandated procedure for his actions. He did not," U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said in his June 12 order granting the temporary restraining order sought by Newsom. "His actions were illegal -- both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. He must therefore return control of the California National Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith." The order did not limit Trump's use of the Marines, which had also been deployed to LA. In a press conference after the district court's order, Newsom said he was "gratified" by the ruling, saying he would return the National Guard "to what they were doing before Donald Trump commandeered them." In its appeal to the Ninth Circuit, administration lawyers called the district judge's order "unprecedented" and an "extraordinary intrusion on the President's constitutional authority as Commander in Chief." Some 4,000 National Guardsmen and 700 Marines were ordered to the Los Angeles area following protests over immigration raids. California leaders claim Trump inflamed the protests by sending in the military when it was not necessary.
Washington Post
28 minutes ago
- Washington Post
What to know about bunker-buster bombs and Iran's Fordo nuclear facility
BANGKOK — If the U.S. decides to support Israel more directly in its attack on Iran, one option for Washington would be to provide the 'bunker-buster' bombs believed necessary to significantly damage the Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant , built deeply into a mountain. Such a bomb would have to be dropped from an American aircraft, which could have wide-ranging ramifications, including jeopardizing any chance of Iran engaging in Trump's desired talks on its nuclear program. Israeli officials have also suggested that there are other options for it to attack Fordo as it seeks to destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities .
