Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) said Democrats should “shut up” about the negative effects of President Donald Trump’s tariffs during an interview on Fox Business on Wednesday.
“No pain, no gain — that’s what we used to tell our football players,” said Tuberville, who coached college football before he entered politics. “There’s going to be some pain with tariffs. But tariffs got us back to the strongest economy in the world when President Trump was in the first time. He knows what he’s doing. Democrats, get out of the way, shut up. You have no answers, you didn’t do anything right in the last four years with Joe Biden. We have a game plan, Trump has a game plan.”
Tuberville’s claim that tariffs strengthened the economy during Trump’s last term comes as some have estimated the tariffs cost 300,000 jobs.
The trade war has been escalating in recent weeks, as Trump finally allowed tariffs to take effect on Canada and Mexico after a month-long delay. He subsequently moved to exempt products already covered by his trade deal from the previous administration, but also jacked up tariffs targeted at raw materials — which prompted Canada to retaliate with new tariffs of their own.
Economists broadly agree that tariffs reduce overall economic output by killing jobs, reducing competition for goods and services, and raising prices in general.
Even Republican lawmakers who have been highly critical of tariffs and supportive of free trade in the past, like Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), have said they are powerless to change Trump’s course on the issue.