Speaker Johnson Says Tariffs May Be ‘Rocky’ at First

TIME

House Speaker Mike Johnson says it may be "rocky" at first.  This comes a day before the United States is set to begin what President Donald Trump calls “ reciprocal ” tariffs.  So far little is known about exactly who will be targeted and what the tariff scheme will be.

Transcript

00:00He's made very clear that he's doing this in the executive branch under his executive authority,

00:05and it doesn't involve Congress in that way. Look, you have to trust the President's instincts

00:12on the economy, okay? Why? This isn't blind faith. Remember what he accomplished in the first

00:18administration. Before COVID, we had the greatest economy in the history of the world, not the U.S.,

00:22the whole world. Every demographic was doing better. Because we cut taxes, we cut regulations,

00:28and we made a better economic environment for everybody to succeed. And he is going about

00:33that same plan to bring that about, and tariffs is a component of that. And we'll see how it all

00:40develops. The reciprocal tariff policy is one that makes a lot of common sense. I mean, you look at

00:46the trade disparity between many nations, and much of this began after World War II, and the

00:51rationale apparently was, well, we need to rebuild Europe, and America emerges as the great superpower,

00:57so we should have this imbalance. It's fair. It's, you know, this is what we need. Well, that carried

01:02on for generations, and we're well beyond World War II now, and this is a different world. It's a much

01:08more integrated, complex economy, and the President's absolutely right when he says that we have to

01:14think about America's interests first, because if we don't, we're not going to maintain our

01:18status as the great superpower. If we raise and match their tariff policy, I think ultimately what

01:22happens is you get back down to a free trade agreement that these countries that are engaged

01:27in this disparity, this raw deal for Americans for so long, it'll get their attention, and they'll,

01:33I think, reduce their tariffs on us. Then you get back to a free and fair trade situation. So

01:40look, we'll see what happens. I think it's going to go forward, and it may be rocky in the

01:46beginning, but I think that this will make sense for Americans, and it will help all Americans.

01:50Is there a legal constitutional path for him to seek a third term,

01:54and would you support him if he went down that road? Well, I just told everybody to read the

01:58Constitution. There's a constitutional path. You have to amend the Constitution to do it, and

02:02that's a high bar. You know, the President and I have talked about this, joked about it. He's

02:08joked about it with me on stage before. You know, we take him at his word. I understand why so many

02:13Americans do wish that he could run for a third term, because he's accomplishing so much in this

02:17first 100 days that they wish it could go on for much longer, but I think he recognizes the

02:23constitutional limitations, and I'm not sure that there's a move about to amend the Constitution.

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