A CNN panel on Wednesday shut down claims that President Donald Trump’s trade policies have not negatively impacted the economy.
GOP strategist Scott Jennings claimed that Trump’s tariffs have been a boost for the economy because they have not caused a recession, as some economists predicted. That is despite the most recent economic data showing that imports and business investment both decreased in the second quarter.
“Let’s go back to April,” Jennings said on CNN’s “NewsNight with Abby Phillip.” He then listed off several names of people who projected the U.S. would enter a recession because of the tariffs.
CNN’s Richard Quest, business editor at large, snatched the paper that Jennings was reading from.
“But what happened in April, Scott?” host Abby Phillip asked Jennings.
Trump announced his so-called “Liberation Day” reciprocal tariffs in April, which ranged from 10% up to 50% or higher for some countries. The announcement sent global stock markets tumbling and caused significant business disruptions because of the uncertainty injected into the market.
“They were to create leverage for negotiations!” Jennings retorted.
Quest then mentioned that the trade deals Trump has negotiated have been largely “pie in the sky.” For instance, Quest said the trade deals with the European Union and Japan include hundreds of billions of investment dollars, but “nobody has any idea where they are going to come from.” The same is true of the deal Trump announced with South Korea on Wednesday, he added.
“They are literally making it up,” Quest said.
“What Trump has brilliantly done, he wanted a headline number, and it’s around 15%,” Quest added. “But the underlying terms of trade deals are garbage.”