Tucker Carlson Admits US Consumers Will Pay for Mexico Tariffs, Does Not Push Back When WH Official Claims Opposite
Tucker Carlson acknowledged the stark economic reality of President Donald Trump’s trade wars when he told his viewers that US consumers and businesses will likely bear the brunt of any tariffs imposed on Mexico, but the Fox News host notably refused to offer any pushback to a White House official who claimed the exact opposite just minutes later on his show.
“Let’s be honest about what that would mean,” Carlson said at the top of his Friday night show, referring to the Trump administration’s threat of escalating five percent tariffs on Mexico. “The US imports $372 billion worth of goods from Mexico every year. The prices on all of those goods would likely go up, consumers would feel that, so would businesses. Critics claim that the tariffs would slow the U.S. economy and they are likely right. Over time they probably would.”
Many high-ranking officials in the Trump administration — including, most notably Trump himself — have repeatedly claimed the opposite: that tariffs on imported goods instead work much like a direct tax on the exporting country. This theory has been refuted by numerous economists. In addition, other Fox News hosts have confronted Trump economic advisers pushing the same false claims about the benefits of tariffs on Chinese goods, forcing them to admit this simply isn’t true.
Carlson, though he admitted Americans will pay more in higher prices, said he supported the prospect of higher tariffs on Mexico because of its alleged assaults against US sovereignty. “We ought to impose them anyway,” he argued. “Not every government policy is a pure economic calculation. When the United States is attacked from a hostile foreign power, it must strike back. And, make no mistake, Mexico is a hostile foreign power.”
The Fox News host went to say: “There’s not a lot of real debate about that, the numbers are clear. Honest people admit it, but our leaders are not honest.”
Carlson’s conclusion would be proven correct all too soon, but his fidelity to factual debate and numbers did not survive the interview with his first guest, White House Director of Trade Policy, Peter Navarro. Almost immediately, Navarro began to repeat the administration’s misleading talking points that any tariffs imposed on Mexico — as with China — would have a salutary effect on the US economy and punish Mexico’s.
“The fact of the matter is Mexico is going to pay those tariffs, the Mexican corporations that send us products will see lower prices, lower profits, and less investment,” Navarro claimed, while Carlson sat stock still, his face exhibiting no reaction. “We will see more investment come here to the U.S. and to locate on domestic soil. Yes, I think the Mexicans will respond to this because it’s going to cost them dearly.”
How did Carlson follow up to a White House official so clearly spreading economic disinformation and so boldly contradicting his own straight talk to Fox News viewers?
“Peter Navarro, from the White House tonight, thanks very much.”
Watch video above, via Fox News.
