Jake Tapper Confronts Trump Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins in Tense CNN Interview: Why Are You Putting Tariffs On Islands ‘Entirely Populated By Penguins?’

CNN’s Jake Tapper grilled Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins Sunday about the tariffs newly-announced by President Donald Trump.

In a tense confrontation on CNN’s State of the Union, Tapper called out public anxiousness about tariffs — and questioned whether the administration has sufficiently recognized the “pain and panic people are feeling” in the wake of the tariff announcement.

“I have to say he didn’t, when he was campaigning, talk about the pain that he is now acknowledging,” Tapper said. And I have say we’re getting a very Pollyanna-ish view of what’s happening from the Trump administration.”

“I disagree with that, Jake,” Rollins said — interjecting.

“Well, let me just finish the question and then you can answer,” Tapper replied. “There seems to be a lack of acknowledgement of the real pain and panic people are feeling right now. And I don’t know if you saw it because you were on TV, but there was a moment on Thursday you were on Fox Business, you were praising President Trump’s leadership, celebrating these tariffs. And all the graphics surrounding you, — again, this is on Fox Business — showed the markets in a nosedive. … I say there seems to be a disconnect between what you’re saying and the reaction of the world. Tell me why you disagree.”

Rollins claimed the administration was not caught off-guard by anything that has happened since the announcement.”

“The idea that we didn’t know that there would be some uncertainty just isn’t true,” Rollins said. “We knew there would uncertainty. But to take Thursday or Friday and as we are basically laying out the vision that the president effectuated in the Rose Garden on Wednesday and to say, ‘Oh, the world is ending! The markets are crashing! The markets are adjusting. Any time you’ve got a strong leader who’s looking at the long-term not, ‘How do I make sure Jake Tapper says nice things about me on State of the Union? Oh, maybe I shouldn’t do the tariffs today.’ That just isn’t how this president operates. He operates in ‘How do I save a country?'”

Tapper went on to quiz the secretary about the tariffs implemented against one territory — which have been the subject of much ridicule.

“A lot of people are questioning the level of scholarship here behind how these tariffs were done,” Tapper said. “For example, President Trump laid out with a giant graphic of all the countries where tariffs were going to be, what he called reciprocal tariffs, were going be imposed. And you’re imposing a 10% tariff on the Heard and McDonald Islands. The Heard and McDonald Islands have zero human inhabitants. They have zero exports, they have zero imports. They do have a lot of penguins. Why are you putting import tariffs on islands that are entirely populated by penguins?”

“I mean, come on, Jake!” Rollins said. “Obviously, here’s the bottom line: We live under a tariff regime from other countries. We have too long ceded the idea that America goes first. I mean, come on, whatever! Listen, the people that are leading this are serious, intentional, patriotic — the smartest people I’ve ever worked with. I did not come up with the formulas. I’m the Ag Secretary. I studied agriculture at Texas A&M. I was in a lot of conversations to make sure our farmers and our ranchers were part of that. The president recognized the importance of inputs. We got potash and fertilizer to make they could do their planting.

“But I have no doubt that I speak on behalf of President Trump when he would say he has the utmost confidence in the team and what they have built and what the have put together. And we are unleashing a new golden age and we will see an economy that will benefit not just every corner of America but our farmers and our ranchers and the people that have been left behind for far too long by both Republicans and Democrats.”

Watch above, via CNN.