‘A Big Roll of the Dice’: Ari Fleischer Warns On Fox News Trump’s Tariffs Could End In ‘Terrible, Terrible Trade War’

Ari Fleischer, the former George W. Bush press secretary, joined Fox News on Friday to discuss a range of topics, including President Donald Trump’s chaotic, on and off again tariffs on major trading partners.

“Let’s go to tariffs, which the president also talked about. He again said that there will be a, quote, little disturbance to consumers during an adjustment period,” anchor John Roberts began, adding:

He also said in terms of the tariffs themselves. There will always be changes and adjustments, though he said that they would be very little. We saw that earlier this week. He put a 25% tariff on all goods coming out of Mexico and Canada, and then walked that back to, say, goods and services covered under the USMCA would be exempt from that. And his critics are saying that, you know, he says one thing and then he does another the next day. What do you say?

“I’ve been thinking a lot about tariffs, because I grew up in the orthodoxy of the Republican Party that tariffs are bad. You don’t want to trade wars. You want to have the reciprocal best deals you can,” Fleischer began, adding:

And then along came Donald Trump in his first term. And he put tariffs on China. And I didn’t criticize him. I want to wait and see how it went. And now he’s putting tariffs on everybody. It’s a big roll of the dice is really what Donald Trump is doing. And I think it’s only fair to let it see how it plays out.

It played out well against China, contrary to Republican orthodoxy about what economic tariffs trade policy should be. Let this play out too. Donald Trump, I think, is using this as gigantic international leverage and making the assumption, kind of taking his hands off the steering wheel, that the other side is going to pull off the road first. He might be right. Yeah. And he is right about all the existing tariffs that are in America.

The value added tax that European countries have, which makes it harder for American products to be sold in Europe. He is right about the unbalanced, imbalance in the trade system. He’s rolling the dice on how to fix it. And it’s a big role.

“Well, I mean, I guess I’ll finish by asking if we knew the outcome of these tariffs and we knew that it only caused minimal inflation and that it was merely transitory, you know, then this would have been obviously the way to go, right? If it brings that much more manufacturing and production back to the United States as he intends,” added Sandra Smith.

“And that Sandra exactly is why it’s a big roll of the dice. Because at the end of the day, this could be fantastic for our country, is fantastic for our manufacturing base, fantastic for blue collar workers, good for revenues,” Fleischer replied before laying out the negative scenario:

Or it could be a terrible, terrible trade war in which other nations don’t back down. They actually increase their tariffs. And we counter and increase our tariffs. And you can already see the disruption and the uncertainty it’s having on financial markets. Now. You don’t do anything when it comes to policy for short term financial markets.

That’s a formula for big mistakes and no long term thinking. But long term it is definitely a roll of the dice. Donald Trump’s a dice roller. We should all know that by now. I think it’s only right. Let it. Let’s let it play out.

“All right. Well, we’ll see if it comes up seven the hard way or if it comes up snake eyes,” concluded Roberts.

Watch above via Fox News.