Jake Tapper Asks Ron Johnson To React To Clip Of Trump Saying Short-Term Recession Would Be 'Okay'

Forbes Breaking News

On CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) spoke about President Trump's tariffs.

Transcript

00:00Let's turn to the U.S. economy.

00:02I want you to take a listen to what President Trump told NBC.

00:04He was asked if he would be comfortable with the country

00:07potentially dipping into a recession in the short term

00:10if he were able to achieve his long-term goals.

00:15Here's his response.

00:18Some people on Wall Street say

00:19that we're going to have the greatest economy in history.

00:22Is it okay in the short term to have a recession?

00:24Look, yeah, everything's okay.

00:30Everything's okay.

00:31That's the president saying everything's okay,

00:33including a short-term recession.

00:34Do you agree?

00:37Well, I'm old enough to remember when Ronald Reagan took office

00:39and inflation was completely out of control.

00:42He and Paul Volcker had to take some pretty bold and swift actions

00:44to tame inflation.

00:45That included a pretty severe recession,

00:47but that's what it took.

00:49When you come into office

00:51and you are inheriting enormous messes across the spectrum,

00:57you know, an open border that presents a clear and present danger,

01:01a 40-year high inflation that has dramatically devalued the dollar,

01:05endless wars going on.

01:07It's hard to clean up those enormous messes,

01:09so I appreciate President Trump has acted boldly, swiftly, decisively

01:14to clean up some of these messes,

01:17and, yeah, it's not going to be easy,

01:19and sometimes the results are going to have to be re-evaluated

01:22and re-looked at some actions reversed,

01:24but you have to act boldly when you have that responsibility.

01:28I hear you when it comes to the border.

01:29I hear you when it comes to inflation.

01:31I hear you when it comes to massive debt.

01:34But this is President Trump trying to reshape the American economy,

01:38bring more manufacturing jobs here

01:40through a very aggressive menu of tariffs all over the world,

01:46which will, of course, raise prices,

01:48according to almost every major economist.

01:51And it does seem like there's been a reluctance

01:53on the part of the president to acknowledge,

01:55he acknowledges disruption,

01:57but to acknowledge how much this could hurt lower-income people.

02:02I want to play something else President Trump said

02:04about concerns over the impact that the tariffs are having on prices.

02:10You know, somebody said,

02:11oh, the shelves are going to be open.

02:13Well, maybe the children will have two dollars instead of $30, you know,

02:17and maybe the two dollars will cost a couple of bucks more

02:20than they would normally.

02:21So the fact is that we have allowed manufacturing

02:26of very strategic, very important products to be offshored.

02:30President Trump fully understands that.

02:31He fully understands one of the reasons he won the presidency

02:34is because of Joe Biden's high inflation.

02:36So he's fully aware of that.

02:38Again, I have my concerns.

02:41The markets have shown those concerns.

02:42They've bounced back.

02:43For my part, what I've been trying to do is keep the administration

02:46prized of the businesses that are going to suffer if this continues long-term.

02:50But it does sound like his bold strategy is resulting in other nations

02:55coming to the table, negotiating in better faith than they have in the past.

02:59I don't know where this all goes.

03:00I don't want to lessen President Trump's leverage by undermining him whatsoever.

03:06I just keep him and his administration prized of how it impacts the Wisconsin businesses.

03:11I think that's currently my role.

03:12And again, actually cheerlead.

03:15Hope for the best here as opposed to, I think, a lot of people are hoping he fails.

03:18I hope he succeeds.

03:20I hope he succeeds, too.

03:21How concerned are you about the next four to six weeks with the final Chinese container ships

03:29pre-tariff reaching American shores with warnings of empty shelves, with warnings of higher prices?

03:38What industries in Wisconsin are you worried about most right now?

03:44Primarily those that are involved in manufacturing, where they also export.

03:47They'll import component parts.

03:50They're competing against foreign companies that won't be subject to those type of tariffs.

03:56So, again, it all depends on how high those tariffs are.

03:59And 10 percent above-the-board tariff, I mean, that's on the wholesale cost of goods.

04:05That probably will not have that significant impact on inflation.

04:08Nobody can predict all of these things.

04:09But, again, my role is listening to my constituents, relaying that to the administration.

04:14I will say the administration, the trade representatives, are very accessible.

04:18They are listening to this.

04:19They understand the concerns.

04:21I think President Trump understands concerns.

04:23But this is a multi-decade, you know, firmly held belief on the part of President Trump

04:28that America has put itself in peril by allowing so many strategic products to be offshored.

04:34He's trying to turn that situation around.

04:36It's not easy.

04:37This is a problem that's built over decades.

04:39He's trying to do it within one administration.

04:41That's why he's acting boldly and swiftly.

04:43Yeah, I don't think dolls are in the American strategic interest, though, right?

04:48I mean, you're talking about semiconductors and the like, and I understand your point.

04:51And that's why even many conservatives say that there should be more, like Stephen Moore,

04:55for example, there should be more discrete targeting of industries and not just a wide swath

05:00of anything coming from any other country.

05:02Well, again, President Trump has a negotiating strategy, a negotiating style.

05:08I think he's throwing the entire world out of balance.

05:11I think he understands that creates uncertainty and instability, which is not good for economic

05:15activity.

05:15He understands those things.

05:17But that's his negotiating strategy.

05:18And it sounds like nations are coming to the table, starting to negotiate in good faith,

05:23which they have not been willing to do in the past.

05:25I've done a lot of negotiating.

05:26Sometimes you've got to be hard, take a hard position with your negotiating partners.

05:31Sounds like that's the approach he's taking.

05:33Again, I, for one, am wishing him success.

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