Ex-Econ Aide ‘Sick To Death’ of MAGA Tariff ‘Spin’ — Even Billionaire Trump Donors Know They ‘Bet on the Wrong Pony’
Ex-Biden economic aide Jared Bernstein unleashed on pro-MAGA media personalities and outlets rallying behind President Donald Trump’s tariffs blitz, ranting that he was “sick to death” and pointing out that even billionaire donors realize they’ve “bet on the wrong pony.”
The outburst came during an appearance on Wednesday’s Morning Joe as the panel reacted to Trump’s international trade war, particularly his 104% tariff against China that prompted a retaliatory 84% levy hike in return from Beijing on U.S. goods on Wednesday as tensions between the countries intensify.
After branding the policy “some of the worst diplomacy” he’d “ever seen” and likening Trump’s approach to “burning down the house,” the panel began discussing how the Fed should react to the market turmoil and entrenched president’s insistence in pressing forward.
Bernstein, in response, began by ripping into those cheering on the tariffs:
Let me just say, I think I speak for a lot of people when I say I am just sick to death of billionaires telling regular people not to worry about what these incompetent people are doing. All right? I mean, I just think that if you’re a billionaire and you’re sitting there while the market is in correction territory, and 60% of middle class people about to retire are watching their 401Ks, don’t tell them not to worry about it, okay? Just don’t. Okay, now, sorry, a little bit of rant, but I feel very deeply about that and I’m sure that resonates with with many folks.
Rounding on the question regarding the Fed, he continued:
In terms of the Fed, they have a real challenge here because yes, if it was the market, the economy, all this turmoil and uncertainty, an interest rate cut would be something that we’d probably expect. In fact, especially since that’s kind of the direction they’ve been going in anyway. But there’s a new problem. Tariffs are a particular challenge for the Fed because they do two things. They slow growth but they raise prices okay? That’s stagflation. The Fed has a hard time cutting interest rates, especially a Fed that’s nervous about inflation getting back to its target. The Fed has a hard time rationalizing justifying an interest rate cut when it’s headed into a price rising kind of environment.
Host Mika Brzezinski returned to question why Trump-supporting media outlets are attempting “to spin” the impact on markets and retirement plans as an “opportunity to give of yourself to the country.”
Bernstein rounded again on MAGA, citing Trump’s bragging during his address at the National Republican Congressional Committee Dinner on Tuesday night:
I am very sympathetic to a message that says we as Americans sometimes have to sacrifice for a bigger gain. I think that’s 100% correct. That is not this. That is not this moment. This is Trump.
You just heard the man stand up on the podium and say, every country is ‘calling me and kissing my butt.’ That’s the goal here. This is an authoritarian president who understands nothing about international trade, breaking the global economy so that he can get other countries to call him up and grovel.
Americans are happy to give up pain if there’s gain later, but pain now for pain later? I don’t think anyone should be happy about that deal.
Frankly, I’m hearing from more and more people. You know, even the billionaire class who supported him seems to be waking up and wondering if they’ve bet on the wrong pony. Here I’m hearing more and more people, including some folks in the MAGA camp, say: ‘This is not what we signed up for. This is not what we voted for.’
Watch above via MSNBC.
