Jeanette Hoffman: Republican strategist reveals how Donald Trump's tariffs are being received in America

President Donald Trump has today confirmed a roll-out of 10 percent tariffs on almost all imports to the US.

They're much higher for some countries and products - including 25 percent on vehicles, 34 percent on China, and nearly 50 percent on some other countries.

Republican strategist Jeanette Hoffman says domestically, Trump is taking a major political risk.

"If prices go up, we hit a recession - that will be bad news. Frankly, he was elected because of inflation." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here is Donald Trump familiar today. For decades, our country
has been looted, pillage, raped, and plundered by nations near
and far, both friend and foe alike.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
But it is not going to happen anymore.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Janet Hoffman is a Republican strategist with me this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hui Jane, Hi, Good afternoon, Ryan. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Great to have you on the show. How's it going
down in America? Futures are already down significantly on the
back of this, but how people feeling about them?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, it's a little controversial here too. In America. Stocks
are down as well. There's a lot of uncertainty with
the markets with this very controversial tariff plan. As we
just heard, President Trump is claiming that other nations have
been ripping America off for decades with tariffs, and he
wants to even the playing field. But of course that's

(00:52):
controversial because America has not implemented broad based tariffs since
nineteen thirty, because the out come has been trade wars,
which is not beneficial for anyone. In fact, when that happened,
the tariff fact of nineteen thirty sparked the Great Depression
for America. So what happens next is anybody's guess. You

(01:15):
know a lot of people think this could increase consumer
prices for Americans and across the globe if this turns
into a mass of global trade war.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
What is your sense of the reason he's really doing this.
Is this just you know, putting a steak in the
sand for you know, bargaining later to get the tariffs
down from other countries, or is it? I mean, if
you listen to the way he talks, he's talking about
stuff like if we were at war and we needed medicines,
you know, we need to bring back manufacturing for our

(01:45):
military might and capability should we need it. Which of
these two you know, competing ideas about why do you
do you buy?

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well? Two things well can be true, Ryan, You know
one of the things if you looked in the audience
of his speech, he was surrounded by auto workers and
teamsters and unions who are desperate to bring manufacturing back
to America because that ship has sailed a long long
time ago. And he does. President Trump does have commitments

(02:17):
to bring manufacturing back from pharmaceutical companies, as you mentioned,
from Pfizer, and from auto manufacturers, and from Apple and
from other companies. And the other thing that also can
be true, as you said, this can be in negotiating
chips with other countries to bring their terriffs down, in
which I think would be smart, right if this could

(02:39):
just be negotiations back and forth instead of a tit
for chat and saying if you're going to raise tariffs,
then I'm going to raise terraffs, and then everything becomes
more expensive, and then we get into this back and
forth into trade war. And I will say when President
Trump did implement tariffs in the first term, it did
hurt American agricultural business, farmers, the American bourbon trades in Louisville, Kentucky,

(03:03):
the whiskey businesses in Tennessee, because those are big exports
for America. So when we implemented tariffs on other countries,
those countries slap tariffs right back on us. So if
it can be a negotiating chip where we say to
other countries, lower your tariffs and we won't implement them
on you, that would be a good thing. But the
fear is that the prices will go up across the board.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Looking at the stock market, and I know a lot
of this was priced and over the last couple of weeks.
But looking at the stock marketing, looking at the futures,
if a recision comes to America, what does it do
to Trump?

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Well, that would not be good for Trump's legacy because, frankly,
I think he was elected because of prices, because of inflation,
because the price of groceries, and he said it himself, groceries,
you know, that was the number one reason why he
was elected. People couldn't stand the price of eggs, the
price of just basic consumer goods, the price of gasoline.

(04:00):
So if everything prices go up we hit a recession,
that will be bad news for Trump's legacy and also
for midterms that the House of Representatives will be elected
next year for Republicans, because that margin the Republicans currently
hold a very slim margin right now, So that would
be bad for any kind of legislation that the president

(04:23):
hopes to pass in the future of his term.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Interesting stuff, Jennett, Thank you very much for your time.
Janet Hoffman, Republican strategist out of the States for US
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