Stephen Miran, who chairs President Donald Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, took a break from stoking racial resentment to appear on CNN Friday and dismiss increasingly troubling jobs reports. When asked about struggling small businesses like Detroit Axle, which recently announced that it will close a warehouse and lay off more than 100 employees due to Trump’s chaotic tariff policies, Miran blamed the company itself for failing under Trump’s ill-conceived trade wars.
“I don’t know the story of that business, but it’s always convenient to blame political changes when your business fails,” Miran told CNN’s Kate Bolduan before clumsily trying to change the subject. “So I don’t know what to make of that particular story. But economically, as I said before, there’s just zero evidence of increased prices for consumers as a result of the tariffs.”
As for “zero evidence” of price increases on consumers, big box retail behemoth Walmart announced in May that it would be raising its prices as a result of the administration’s tariffs. More recently, an analysis by The Wall Street Journal found that since January, despite public proclamations saying otherwise, Amazon has steadily increased prices on a variety of consumer goods.
At the grocery store, beef prices are soaring and Nestle said Halloween candy will be more expensive, thanks to tariffs increasing in the price of cocoa.
Related | New jobs numbers hint at Great Recession 2.0
Shortly after Miran’s appearance on CNN, video-gaming giant Nintendo announced it will further increase the price of its popular Switch console and many accessories in the United States “based on market conditions.”
Trump’s trade wars have led to dubious deals, all of which end with rising costs for Americans—and no relief in sight.