‘Pain Is Not Worth the Gain!’ Trump Ally Stephen Moore Slams President’s Canada Trade War

Economist Stephen Moore has warned that President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada are “probably not worth the gain” and poorly timed amid the Iran war and inflation concerns.

Moore, a close ally of Trump, joined Ashley Webster, filling in on Varney & Co., on Fox Business on Monday, where he accused Canada of “cheating” in their trade deals with the United States, but he also warned of the consequences from Trump’s new tariffs.

“Probably the pain is not worth the gain. I’ve been a bit of a skeptic on the tariff front with respect to the Trump strategy. But I do want to point out to the viewers that Canada has been cheating,” Moore said.

He argued Trump is attempting to get Canada to lower their own tariffs, but he cautioned fighting such a trade war while markets continue to be disrupted by the ongoing Iran war. Commodity prices, Moore added, are already up and going head-to-head with Canada could worsen those prices.

He said:

They’re imposing very high tariffs on American farm goods, our manufacturing goods, our technology products, and so they have been imposing pretty high tariffs on the U.S. and what Trump wants to do is force Canada to bring those down. I think it’s a wise strategy. I don’t think the timing is so great here, Ashley.

I mean, you know, what’s the old saying? You never want to fight a two-front war at the same time. We’re in a sticky situation obviously in Iran, with respect to those negotiations. Do I think now is a good time to fight a trade war with Canada? Probably not because as I look at the numbers, I was just looking at the numbers, Ashley, right before I came on the show, commodity prices are rising right now in the U.S. That’s a bad sign. That’s an indication that inflation continues to tick up.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney claimed last week that Canada was “attacked” with Trump’s tariffs.

“We’ve got the reserves, we’ve got the resilience, we’ve got the plan, we’ve got the focus, we’re gonna respond. We’re going to focus on what we can control, what we’re going to build,” he said.

Trump announced a 50% tariff on about $20 billion worth of exports out of Canada after trade talks collapsed. Products facing tariffs include paper, textiles, cement, wine, electronics, and more. Carney vowed to match the tariffs “dollar for dollar.”

Moore predicted consumers will be the ones who end up getting hit with the costs of the trade war.

Watch above via Fox News.

Jason Cohen contributed to this report.

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