Fox’s Brit Hume Warns That Trump’s Use of ‘Uncertainty’ Is ‘Very Hard on Business and Industry’

Fox News’ chief political analyst Brit Hume took President Donald Trump to task over his economic policies on Tuesday, saying the president’s focus on “strategic uncertainty” may not be something to bank on.

During a discussion on America’s Newsroom with Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino, Hume offered a so-so assessment of  the commander-in-chief’s first 100 days, first lauding Trump for his success at the border.

But on the economy, Hume was considerably more wary.

“Obviously things are more uncertain on the economy and I was struck, Dana and Bill, by a phrase that I heard from Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, when he spoke of the president’s use of what he called strategic uncertainty, which I think really gets to the heart of things on the economy for this reason. Strategic uncertainty may be something that’s valuable and useful to a negotiator, and the president likes that and that’s his style of negotiating and he has succeeded with it in the past. However, uncertainty is very hard on business and industry, and on the economy.”

Hume also noted that while the Trump White House is “off to the fastest start we’ve ever seen,” this is going to be a controversial and turbulent presidency.

“He was doing everything, everywhere all at once, and doing that on the strength of a slender but convincing victory.”

He added: “A lot of it is balls in the air right now and that’s kind of where we are. The president may be able to land all these airplanes we have out there successfully and one hopes he will, but he hasn’t yet and that accounts for the fact his poll numbers have declined to some extent.”

Read the exchange here:

DANA PERINO: And the White House striking a triumphant tone as it marks the first 100 days of president trump’s second term. It’s been a whirlwind of action and headline-making moves and here to break it all down is fox chief political and a list Brit Hume. Some numbers for you Brit. Executive orders signed: 142, cabinet members confirmed: he got all 21 out of 21, that was pretty quickly done. DOGE savings: $162 billion — quite a bit short of what they thought eventually would be the case and we’ll wait to see on that. Border encounters — this is incredible, a decrease of 94.2%. Your assessment on this hundred days, Brit.

BRIT HUME: Well, it’s a mixture, certainly on the border. It’s been a thundering success done in a period of time way shorter than anybody imagined, except possibly Mr. Trump himself. So I think you have to chalk that up as a victory and it’s one where the public approval is pretty high on the border. So I think that’s a great success and I can understand why they’re promoting it as vigorously as they are. Obviously, things are more uncertain on the economy and I was struck, Dana and Bill, by a phrase that I heard from Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, when he spoke of the president’s use of what he called strategic uncertainty, which I think really gets to the heart of things on the economy for this reason. Strategic uncertainty may be something that’s valuable and useful to a negotiator, and the president likes that and that’s his style of negotiating and he has succeeded with it in the past. However, uncertainty is very hard on business and industry, and on the economy, because — and you heard Scott Bessent throughout the rest of that interview he did this morning talking about new ways to have clarity and how we get some trade deals and things will calm down and so on. I think that may well be true. But I think that strategic uncertainty, which is kind of a euphemism if you think about it, describes perfectly what we’re in with regard to the economy.

BILL HEMMER: Let me tick off two things quickly, I think it’s a consequential presidency whether you like what he’s doing or not, whether you like him or not, and we have three and a half more years of it. Niall Ferguson writes this, “Donald Trump is crushing his to-do list… One day historians will refer to this as the most consequential in American history. In the first 100 days back in the White House, Donald Trump has crushed that list, accused him of overpromising underdelivering and Dana just ticked off a number of things that we have seen. Meanwhile, you’ve got the other side and it really seems like old dogs, same tricks. Congressman from Michigan filing charges of impeachment against Donald Trump.
…
HEMMER: And this play was run several times the first time around, Brit, as you know.
HUME: Yeah, that thing’s not going anywhere. I mean, those remarks you just played there, they fall into the category of things of little note we’ll long remember. They almost seem slightly comical. This is going to be a controversial and turbulent presidency it has been off to the fastest start of any what we — we’ve ever seen, he was doing everything, everywhere all at once, and doing that on the strength of a slender but convincing victory. So it’s an ambitious agenda such as we’ve never seen as now Ferguson’s piece suggests, not all of it has come to fruition. A lot of it is balls in the air right now and that’s kind of where we are. The president may be able to land all these airplanes we have out there successfully and one hopes he will, but he hasn’t yet and that accounts for the fact his poll numbers have declined to some extent.

Watch clip above via Fox News.