CNN Guest Draws Heat for Claiming Trump Told Voters His Tariffs Would Be ‘Very Painful’

Panelists on Thursday’s CNN NewsNight mixed up when one of them praised President Donald Trump for launching a trade war, knowing that it would be “very painful.”

Trump has slapped sweeping tariffs on imports from most countries, prompting markets to tumble over the past few weeks as investors fear that an increase in consumer goods will hurt demand and slow the global economy. The president has insisted that tariffs alone are sufficient to bring back manufacturing jobs to the U.S. and fill the Treasury’s coffers.

Host Abby Phillip noted that Trump campaigned on bringing prices down, but tariffs achieve the opposite.

“What about the issues that he ran on, which is to bring down the cost of living, just make people’s lives better right now?” she asked Ungar-Sargon.

“I think there are certain things that we, all around the table, would agree on that urgently needed a course correction in this country, which were going to be very difficult to– they’re unpalatable for the nation,” Ungar-Sargon said. “The tariffs are the reason that he is struggling in the polls, but he knew that this was going to be a period that is going to be very painful. And he still had the guts to do it.”

“He didn’t run on that,” comedian John Fugelsang interjected. “He didn’t run on that.”

“He deserves a lot of credit for because he knew that it was going to hurt anyway,” she replied. “He said the word ‘tariffs’ at every single–”

“He never said there’d be some pain, sweetheart,” Democratic consultant Karen Finney shot back.

“Of course he did!” Ungar-Sargon claimed.

“Never on the campaign trail,” Finney said.

Watch above via CNN.