Fox’s Lawrence Jones Asks JD Vance to Explain ‘Disconnect’ Between Markets ‘Freaking Out’ and Supporters ‘Cheering’ Over Trump Tariffs
Fox News’ Lawrence Jones asked Vice President JD Vance to explain the “disconnect” between those “freaking out” over President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs and the supporters “cheering” them on.
Vance joined Fox & Friends on Thursday ahead of the stock market’s opening less than 24 hours after the president imposed sweeping tariffs on imports coming from a number of countries across the world. Vance argued in favor of the policy on Thursday, claiming it will restore American manufacturing.
“There does seem to be a disconnect. You see Wall Street, and the media, and the markets. and they are freaking out. But then I look at workers in the Rose Garden celebrating… What is the disconnect between the market and the people, the workers cheering this on right now?” Jones asked the vice president.
Vance argued the country needs a “big change,” arguing foreign companies have harmed the American economy more than helped it.
“They know this is a big change, but we need a big change in this country because what we’ve done, what we did under the Biden administration, it just wasn’t working,” he said.
Jones also pressed Vance on what message he gives to “paycheck to paycheck” voters who may struggle more if tariffs lead to more inflation and cost increases. Vance could not provide a specific timeline for when things might get better, but acknowledged that people are “struggling right now,” noting he himself came from a paycheck-to-paycheck family.
Vance blamed the tariffs being needed on former President Joe Biden and argued pursuing deregulation and bringing down energy costs will benefit working class Americans.
“Joe Biden left us — this is not an exaggeration, Lawrence — with the largest peacetime debt and deficit in the history of the United States of America with sky high interest rates. You don’t fix that overnight,” the vice president said. “We know people are struggling. We’re fighting as quickly as we can to fix what was left to us, but it’s not happen immediately.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average nosedived Thursday morning with the Dow down 1,178 points, or 2.7 percent. This followed Trump’s tariffs announcement the day prior on what he’s referred to as “Liberation Day.”
Check out the exchange below:
LAWRENCE JONES: Mr. Vice President, there does seem to be a disconnect. You see Wall Street and the media and the markets and they are freaking out. But then I look at workers in the Rose Garden celebrating, and I think about all the diners I’ve done across the country say, we have lost manufacturing and they are celebrating. What is the disconnect between the market and the people, the workers cheering this on right now?
JD VANCE: On the one hand, frankly, a lot of people have gotten rich from American jobs moving overseas, but American workers have not gotten rich and American companies have not gotten wealthy from the increasing growth of foreign competitors manufacturing overseas. As the president says, Lawrence, these foreign companies, they charge us ridiculous tariffs. They engage in a lot of non-tariff practices like currency manipulation. That has been awful for Main Street in the United States of America. It’s meant that those diners, their customers don’t have jobs anymore, it meant those great steel mills, those great auto plants have closed down and their workers have been laid off. What I saw in the Rose Garden was incredible enthusiasm because a lot of those workers, they’ve been working hard for 10, 20, 30, or 40 years. Young and old were in the Rose Garden yesterday. They never had a president who stood up for their jobs and stood up for American prosperity. They finally see something has shifted. There were Democrats out there, Republicans, there were union and non-union workers alike. They know this is a big change, but we need a big change in this country because what we’ve done, what we did under the Biden administration, it just wasn’t working.
JONES: So, Mr. Vice President, I know a lot of MAGA folks, a lot of Americans that are cheering the president on, especially when he takes it to other countries. They feel like we’ve been screwed for a long time. But I also know people that come from our background. They’re living paycheck to paycheck, they want to do the patriotic duty of taking it to other countries but it’s going to hit them a little bit, they feel. What can you tell the American people that can’t afford extra $3 here and there about the government making up the difference for them. Will costs go up at some point? Is this just temporary? Are we talking three months or six months?
VANCE: Well, we certainly hear — and you know how I grew up, I lived in a family that often did live paycheck to paycheck. We know a lot of Americans are worried, so we are fighting hard to bring prices down. We’re going to have the biggest deregulation in this country, we’re doing a lot of things and already have done a lot of things to lower the cost of energy. You heard the president mention this yesterday. Eggs, when we came in were at a 10-year high and all of a sudden they dropped 60% just in the two months of the Trump administration. What I ask folks to appreciate here, we will not fix things overnight. Joe Biden left us — this is not an exaggeration, Lawrence — with the largest peacetime debt and deficit in the history of the United States of America with sky high interest rates. You don’t fix that overnight. We know people are struggling. We’re fighting as quickly as we can to fix what was left to us, but it’s not happen immediately. But we really do believe if we pursue the right deregulation, if we pursue those energy cost reducing policies, yes, people are going to see it in their pocket book. They’re also going to benefit from the fact that foreign countries can’t take advantage of us anymore. That means their jobs are going to be more secure.
Watch above via Fox News.
