'Total Failure': Chuck Schumer Absolutely Rips Into Trump's Tariffs After US Economy Shrinks 0.3%

Forbes Breaking News

During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) criticized President Trump's tariffs after the US economy contracted 0.3% in the first quarter.

Transcript

00:00President, Americans woke up this morning to some very troubling news.

00:05The economy shrank in the first quarter of 2025 by 0.3%.

00:09It shrank. It was growing until now. It shrank.

00:14It's the worst quarter in years.

00:16Businesses, families, and consumers are bracing themselves

00:20for the hammer blow of Donald Trump's tariffs,

00:23and it's sending the economy into a tailspin.

00:26Today, today's GDP numbers show that Donald Trump is running America

00:33the same way he ran his businesses, into the ground.

00:38Before our very eyes, Donald Trump's policies of tariffs and tax hikes

00:44are strangling the economy.

00:48Donald Trump's first hundred days have been defined by one big F-word, failure.

00:56Donald Trump's first hundred days have been defined by an F-word, failure.

01:02Failure on the economy.

01:04Failure to lower costs.

01:07Failure on foreign policy.

01:10Failure on democracy.

01:12Failure everywhere you look.

01:14Donald Trump must admit his failure and reverse course and immediately fire his economic team.

01:22Otherwise, we'll see more of the same.

01:24Failure and chaos and total incompetence.

01:29His tariff strategy?

01:31Total failure.

01:32China's not coming to the table.

01:35Manufacturing's not racing back to our shores.

01:38There's no strategy, only chaos.

01:40Every day, he changes his mind.

01:43One day he says yes to tariffs, the next day no.

01:46One day this country's on the list, the next day that country's on the list.

01:50No tariffs, double the tariffs, on and on and on.

01:54And as he's doing this, his policy advisors have different explanations

01:57for what he's doing and why he's doing it.

02:00Businesses pay the price for Donald Trump's failed policies.

02:05When businesses don't know what the president will do next, they can't plan for the failure.

02:11They're not going to hire workers.

02:12I've talked to business leaders, small businesses, medium-sized businesses, and big businesses in New York.

02:18And I'm sure this is true around the country.

02:20They're holding off on any new spending because they don't know what Donald Trump will do next.

02:26His chaos is just totally impeding our economy.

02:34We're seeing it happen in real time.

02:36And because the tariff policy has been such a mess, such a failure,

02:41today, later today, Senators Wyden, Cain, and I will force a vote here in the Senate

02:48to stop Donald Trump's trade wars.

02:51Our Republican colleagues have an opportunity to stop Donald Trump.

02:57Our resolution presents Republicans with a choice.

03:01Stand with Donald Trump or stand with American families.

03:05The GDP number today should be a wake-up call to Republican Senators now more than ever.

03:11Four voted with us last time on tariffs about Canada.

03:14Many more should vote with us this time,

03:17given the new numbers and given that this resolution covers all of the countries

03:22that Donald Trump has so failed with on tariffs.

03:27Senate Republicans know deep down that Donald Trump's tariff policies are awful for their states,

03:32so they have to choose today.

03:34Stick with Trump or stand with your states.

03:37But the failures don't stop there just at tariffs.

03:40What about his promise to bring down costs?

03:43Again, failure.

03:44Failure to bring down costs.

03:46Grocery prices are up.

03:47Housing is up.

03:49Rent and housing are up.

03:50The price of new car is up.

03:52Household appliances are up.

03:53Big retailers are warning that Donald Trump's trade war will make the problem far, far worse.

03:59And foreign policy?

04:01Total failure.

04:02Putin's emboldened.

04:04China's not coming to the table.

04:05Our allies are all losing trust.

04:07He's ready to break up the European alliance over Ukraine.

04:12Doge.

04:12Total failure.

04:13Elon Musk took the big game of cutting waste, reducing fraud.

04:17But Doge is attacking Social Security, attacking veterans' care, attacking cancer research.

04:23That's not cutting waste, Mr. Musk.

04:26That doesn't make the government more efficient.

04:28That puts a dagger to the programs that America needs, which makes our country strong.

04:33The list goes on.

04:36Rooting out corruption?

04:37Failure.

04:38Transparency?

04:39Failure.

04:40Rule of law?

04:41Failure.

04:42Economic optimism?

04:43Failure.

04:44It's one big F word.

04:47Failure.

04:48And while our economy sinks in real time, while consumers get saddled with Donald Trump's

04:53tariffs, Republicans are complicit.

04:55There is co-conspirators.

04:57They're aiding and abetting Donald Trump as he cuts taxes for billionaires.

05:01They're aiding and abetting Donald Trump as he wants to obliterate Medicaid.

05:05They're aiding and abetting Donald Trump as he wants to add $52 trillion to the national

05:10debt.

05:10They want to help the richest of the rich while telling the working people to get lost.

05:16The Republican agenda boils down to five dismal words.

05:22Billionaires win.

05:24American families lose.

05:25This is a recipe for failure, if there ever has been one.

05:30Finally, as Donald Trump destroys our economy, the American people cannot and will not stand

05:37by as he also tries to destroy our democracy.

05:41Donald Trump is everything the Founding Fathers worried about when they wrote the Constitution.

05:47They feared the man, a man who would see the rule of laws and nuisance, who considers the

05:53truth as an inconvenience, and who regards his fellow citizens as little more than subjects.

05:58Either kiss the ring, bow before the throne, or watch your back.

06:03That's the ethos of Donald J. Trump.

06:07Republicans howled at the moon for years about weaponizing government, but no president in

06:12American history has weaponized the government like Donald Trump has in 100 days.

06:17The Department of Justice has become his personal henchman.

06:20He is assaulting freedom of the press.

06:22He is assaulting our education system and institutions of higher learning.

06:26His deportation force is expelling American citizens with no due process.

06:31Let me repeat that.

06:32Donald Trump is deporting American citizens with no due process, and the American people

06:38don't like it.

06:40One of the traits of a dictator is someone hostile to all forms of accountability, to all forms

06:45of criticism.

06:46That is Donald Trump to a T. He's scared of debate.

06:49He's scared of opposition.

06:51He can't stand the ideas of others disagreeing with him.

06:54So, instead, he tries to crush anything he views as opposition.

06:59That is not strength.

07:01That's a sign of deep, deep, deep insecurity.

07:05The more Donald Trump tries to take America down this ominous road, the more he'll face

07:10resistance.

07:11Democrats will oppose his agenda.

07:13The courts will oppose his attack.

07:15And most of all, the American people will resist his hostile takeover of our democracy.

07:21I yield the floor.

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