Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) openly admitted during a CNN interview on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade wars, particularly through tariffs, will raise prices for American consumers. He also said that Trump is aware of these costs as part of his economic plan.
“Tariffs are a tax, and it will be passed on to consumers, but it also allows us to have open markets,” Mullin told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “That is something that the president, who is a businessperson, understands completely.”
“Everybody knows that,” Mullin added.
He also urged people to be patient and wait for Trump’s policies to work, even if it means higher prices for now.
“President Trump will get this economy where it needs to go,” he said. “He said that he was going to do what he’s doing with the tariffs.”
“There hasn’t been a president that understands this economy better than this president,” Mullin continued.
The Trump administration has often denied that tariffs are a form of tax on Americans. Still, many economists agree that tariffs tend to increase costs for U.S. consumers.
“He’s actually not implementing tax hikes,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing on Tuesday. “Tariffs are a tax hike on foreign countries that again, have been ripping us off. Tariffs are a tax cut for the American people, and the President is a staunch advocate of tax cuts.”
Leavitt also argued that fair trade would lead to higher wages and economic growth in the U.S., benefiting American workers in the long term.
Wall Street has shown concern over Trump’s unpredictable tariff policies, especially his back-and-forth trade disagreements with countries like Canada and Mexico, which have caused fluctuations in the stock market.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration received some positive news when the Labor Department reported that inflation had decreased.
The European Union, consisting of 27 countries, has also been in a trade dispute with Trump over imports. After the U.S. imposed a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum, the EU announced it would impose counter-tariffs on $28 billion worth of U.S. imports.
Mullin explained that many people don’t fully understand tariffs because past presidents haven’t discussed them much.
“A lot of people didn’t understand tariffs, because most presidents just didn’t talk about it,” Mullin told Collins. “[Other countries] have been taking advantage of us, and we’ve been losing billions and trillions of dollars by propping up their economy, while our economy is suffering.”
Mullin has consistently defended Trump’s tariff strategy, which he sees as a key part of the president’s “America First” approach.
“When he said he’s putting America first, this is part of it,” Mullin said on CNN last week.
“Now, does it hurt our homes? Does it hurt our finances? Does it hurt our communities? Yes, but we understand that we need to get America back on track, and we’ve got to stop the criminal activity,” Mullin added.
Watch the segment below from CNN:
