Trump-Backing Senator Voices Concern About Tariffs as Stock Market Tanks: ‘A Bold, Risky Move’

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson (WI) is expressing uncertainty about President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs two days in, calling the White House’s action a “bold, risky move” as a massive selloff plagues Wall Street.

Speaking with Fox Business’ Stuart Varney on Varney & Co., Johnson — a longtime Trump backer — said he’s been hearing from farmers and other constituents concerned about the impact of the steep tariffs instituted by the president on Wednesday.

He admitted that he’s not sure of Trump’s endgame, saying: “I just can’t predict how this will turn out here. It’s a bold, risky move.”

Check out the full exchange below:

STUART VARNEY: Clearly the Democrats don’t like the tariff deal. How do you respond to your democratic colleagues?

RON JOHNSON: I realize Democrats aren’t fond of Donald Trump. We will start with what is indisputable. America has been generous in offering access to our markets to global competition, some global trading partners have taken advantage of that, there are many products that are vital and strategic to America that we no longer produce that is a national security risk, that should concern everybody. What Donald Trump is initiating here is a long-held belief that he believes tariffs will correct those problems, but what’s also indisputable that markets are down 8% in two days and I am getting all kinds of reaction from businesses, farmers in Wisconsin that are highly concerned about what’s happening. So those are the facts. I don’t know. All I can really do kind of report the reality to the administration and let them know how these actions are impacting my constituents and it’ll be pretty much up to Donald Trump and his administrtion to determine exactly how long they want to go down this road, when they can start negotiating with our trading partners. Obviously some gains, 5 to 6 trillion dollars of investment has been committted — that’s what President Trump claims. Some trading partners have lowered tariffs, so again, I just can’t predict how this will turn out here. It’s a bold, risky move.

VARNEY: It is the uncertainty that is hurting the market. Here’s a story, a new report, claims the Republicans, some Republicans are considering hiking taxes for those earning $1 million or more to a 40% tax rate. Are you going, are you bending to the pressure to tax the rich, bending to the unpopularity of billionaires?

JOHNSON: I’m not and I’m not going to do that without a big fight. I’m not here to increase people’s taxes. I’m here to return us to a reasonable pre-pandemic level of spending, setting up a process to go line by line through 2400 lines of outlays and extend the chairs, to get our budget down, you know where you can go from 4. $4 trillion in 2019 up to 7. $3 trillion and say that’s justified in reasonable. I’m focusing on spending spending spending. You heard us all say we don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. I’m focusing on spending.

VARNEY: Senator Ron Johnson, thanks for joining us.

Earlier Friday, Johnson warned NewsNation’s Marni Hughes of “really bad economic times” ahead.

Trump took an eyebrow-raising victory lap following a positive jobs report released Friday morning.

The U.S. Economy added a stronger than expected 228,000 jobs for the month of March, though the unemployment rate ticked up one decimal to 4.2% from 4.1%.

As a result, Trump took to social media and posted, “GREAT JOB NUMBERS, FAR BETTER THAN EXPECTED. IT’S ALREADY WORKING. HANG TOUGH, WE CAN’T LOSE!!!”

Watch above via Fox Business.