Trump Ally Stumped When CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Forces Him To Name ‘Tangible Concession’ From Showdown On Trade

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins stumped Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) by asking him to name a “tangible concession” that President Donald Trump secured in a standoff over tariffs with Mexico and Canada.

Over the weekend, Trump announced stiff 25 percent tariffs against close U.S. trading partners Canada and Mexico and 10 percent on goods from China, which were set to take effect Monday. But the opening bell saw the Dow Jones plummet over 500 points within seconds, and within hours Trump was announcing a “pause” on tariffs with Canada and Mexico — claiming it was the result of his dealmaking.

On Monday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins pointed out that Trump is taking credit for “winning” things that were already in place.

To underscore the point, Collins spent several minutes trying to get Collins to identify what the U.S. gained “that it did not have before this morning.”

Eventually, Davidson could only admit Trump won the “reiteration” and formalization of an existing arrangement:

COLLINS: What does the U.S. have today that it did not have before this morning, from Canada or Mexico?

REP. WARREN DAVIDSON (R-OH): Well, look, President Trump is focused on, on trade.

And look, before I was in Congress, I was in manufacturing. And our manufacturing companies’, the number one elephant in the room is China. And with Canada, with Mexico, with a number of Western Hemisphere countries, you see them continually doing more and more business with China, including Colombia.

So, what I think Trump is doing, right now, is setting conditions for everybody to be reminded to not take the United States of America for granted, and that we need to be your number one trading partner, and when the time comes, you work with us to deal with the — with the challenge of China.

COLLINS: And the China tariffs are still going into effect. They are not getting a reprieve like Canada and Mexico are.

But did the White House, in your view, extract anything from Canada or Mexico, to call off this trade war?

DAVIDSON: Well, I think absolutely, he got — he got both Sheinbaum and Trudeau to acknowledge, we need to help deal with fentanyl. We need to deal with the black market.

And the black market is wrecking our country. It’s killing tens of thousands of Americans every year, far more than we’ve lost in many years in any kind of terrorist combat, any kind of thing like that. We’re getting tens of thousands of Americans.

And the thing about fentanyl, it’s not like people intentionally take fentanyl. They — you know, we had a young lady who — Lizzie Murphy. She took a — she took a Xanax at a party. Not a great idea, but it’s not supposed to kill you. It was laced with fentanyl. Dead at 21- years-old. And that’s happening, thousands and thousands of families, all over the country.

COLLINS: Yes, no one’s denying that, of course. I mean, it’s ravaged hometowns. Everyone understands the fentanyl crisis. But one, the amount of fentanyl that comes from Canada is nowhere near the scale of the southern border. A lot of it comes through legal ports of entry.

But on this specifically, he called this off, saying that he had won concessions from both of them. But is there a tangible concession, in your view?

DAVIDSON: Yes, absolutely, he won the concessions. And part of it is–

COLLINS: But what is — what’s–

DAVIDSON: Part of it is — part of it is–

COLLINS: What’s new?

DAVIDSON: Well, it’s a — it’s a commitment from Trudeau that wasn’t there, to help with fentanyl, to help with the black market–

COLLINS: Well he announced the plan–

DAVIDSON: –and to secure the border.

COLLINS: He announced that plan, though, six weeks ago, back in December.

DAVIDSON: Well, at least he’s reiterated it and formalized it.

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.