Rand Paul Brutally Torches ‘Fundamentally Backwards’ Trump Tariffs — Reveals Other Republicans Are Also Fed Up
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) torched President Donald Trump’s tariff economic strategy as “fundamentally backwards and upside down” and revealed other GOP lawmakers have been quietly expressing their frustrations during an appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday.
During the interview, Paul predicted tariffs would lead to downturns in the stock market that will ultimately “decimate” his own retirement fund. The Kentucky lawmaker also argued that Trump’s view of tariffs is based on a “fallacy.”
Paul argued free trade is “mutually beneficial” and expansive tariffs have “no value” the moment they are applied, with increased costs being passed onto the consumer and leading to chaotic markets. Paul has been pushing Republicans to support legislation that would require Congress to approve tariffs before they are imposed.
“The whole debate is so fundamentally backwards and upside down,” he said. “It’s based on a fallacy and the fallacy is this: that somehow in a trade someone must lose. That somehow when you trade with someone there’s a loser and someone’s taking advantage of you, and China is ripping you off, or Japan is ripping you off. It’s absolutely a fallacy. Every trade that occurs in the marketplace is mutually beneficial.”
Paul added that many lawmakers are afraid to publicly speak up against tariffs as they fear political blowback. The Libertarian-leaning senator claimed lawmakers silently say “free trade” to him to support his message. Paul compared it to characters expressing frustrations with an oversized and tyrannical government by saying “who is John Galt?” in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.
“It’s a quiet whisper, and people come up to me in the hall — you know how in Atlas Shrugged, they would come up and say, ‘who is John Galt?’, they whisper in my ear, ‘free trade is good, keep going, keep going,'” the senator said. “But they don’t want to say it because of the politics of it.”
Watch above via CNBC.
