‘Ridiculous’: Rand Paul Claps Back at Team Trump and Doubles Down on Criticism of ‘Disaster’ Tariffs

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) clapped back at senior Trump advisor Peter Navarro over his criticism of opponents of President Donald Trump’s tariffs during an appearance on Fox News’ America Reports Tuesday.

Paul’s appearance followed one from Navarro on Monday during which he accused critics of Trump’s tariff policy of “dishonoring” Americans who have died of fentanyl overdose.

After laying out his economic case against tariffs on Tuesday, Paul took care to call Trump “the ultimate negotiator” and suggested that tariffs “have value” as a “negotiating weapon” so long as “we never enact them,” because to do so would be to create “a disaster for trade and for the consumer.

Then anchor Sandra Smith asked Paul to directly address Navarro’s comments, which came in response to a critical tweet from Paul.

“It’s kind of a ridiculous statement to say that people who are against tariffs are for the fentanyl trade because it’s just not true,” replied Paul. “Everything we can do to stop the fentanyl trade from Mexico and Canada, we should try to do. Part of it is them allowing it to come through, part of it’s the fact of that in Mexico, about a sixth of Mexico isn’t even under the control of the government. So I do applaud the president for pushing Mexico into saying ‘We’ll put troops on the border and the Remain in Mexico policy will be in place.’ All of those are a good thing. And I think we’re all on the same side on that.”

“But tariffs as an economic policy are a disaster for the consumer. I mean, higher prices, even if the tariffs are only on China, the average price that the consumer will pay is about $1,000 more,” concluded Paul. “So every American will be $1,000 less rich because of these tariffs.”

Watch above via Fox News.