GOP Senator Says ‘There’s Absolutely Gonna Be Short-Term Pain’ – But Supports Trump’s Tariffs Anyway
Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) said he supports President Donald Trump’s tariffs even though they will lead to “short-term pain.”
Since taking office again in January, Trump has teased, paused, implemented, and partially rescinded various tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, China, and European countries. The president has said he will unveil a new set of tariffs on April 2, the specifics of which remain unclear. Reports indicated he is considering a 20% across-the-board tariff on all trading partners.
Predictably, markets have reacted bearishly because tariffs are paid by the importing business, which then pass on the added cost to Americans. U.S. consumer sentiment is low, as many express concerns about tariff-related inflation. Some Trump officials have countered by falsely claiming that tariffs are actually a tax cut.
On Monday, Sheehy appeared on CNN’s The Source, where Kaitlan Collins asked the senator if his constituents will be adversely affected by the tariffs.
“I was looking at the numbers – 95% of Montana’s imported goods come from Canada, Mexico, and China,” she said. “Is this going to hurt people in your state?”
“There’s absolutely gonna be short-term pain,” Sheehy flatly stated. “The president’s been clear about that. Everyone has. I mean, if you’re gonna remodel your house to make it better in the end, it’s gonna be really annoying in the short term when your house is getting remodeled and there’s drywall dust everywhere and there’s workers in your living room. The reality is that remodel has gotta happen in order to make things stronger and more stable on the back end.”
He went on to claim that other countries have been “taking advantage of the strong American economy.”
“But there’s a lot of companies that right now are doing nothing because they’re waiting to see what the policy actually is,” Collins replied. “There’s not a lot of mergers or anything happening because people are nervous about this. You liken this to a remodel. Sometimes those take longer than you plan for. I mean, if you’re an American and you’re waiting to see what does short-term pain mean? I mean, how long do you expect that to last?”
“I mean, we don’t know,” Sheehy responded. “And I’ll add, a lot of the media frustration with the uncertainty around President Trump’s–”
“Not media,” Collins interjected. “Business uncertainty.”
“Uh, sure,” Sheehy said. “But, you know, the media is helping with that. I mean, business uncertainty responds to public market sentiment. You know, there wasn’t nearly as much pearl-clutching when we had record inflation, record interest rates, record cost of good increases for middle-class families over the last three and a half years.”
Watch above via CNN.
