Chris Wallace: If Trump is Using Tariffs to Distract From Mueller, It’s a ‘Pretty Damaging’ Issue to Use as a ‘Shiny Object’

Fox News’ Chris Wallace spoke with Shepard Smith this afternoon to discuss the potential ramifications of President Donald Trump threatening tariffs on Mexico.

Wallace said clearly Trump is trying to focus on keeping his big campaign promise of cracking down at the border, because “a lot of what he promised hasn’t happened.” He also said it may have a personal element, given the number of people coming across the border.

Smith noted the Republican criticisms––from a number of GOP senators thus far––of the tariff threat. Wallace said if Trump’s gambit works he gets Mexico to crack down and it’ll be a success, but not if the U.S. ends up in a trade war.

Smith said the overall effect, “whether for the good or bad or by design or not,” is that this has overtaken discussion of the Mueller report.

“This is a president who’s always been very good about narrative, maybe one of the best ever, and the narrative has changed,” he added.

“No question about it,” Wallace agreed. “The president will sometimes, as you point out, choose to create one controversy to distract from another controversy. I gotta say, though, this is quite a controversy. When you see the stock market going down 300 points and, you know, you’ve got Republican senators and some conservative pro-Republican business groups and companies all crying out about it, it’s a pretty damaging bright shiny object to hold up to get people to stop talking about Robert Mueller.”

You can watch above, via Fox News.

[image via screengrab]