Fox News contributor Karl Rove told President Donald Trump and his administration to stop all the “happy talk” as concerns over the economy grow.
Rove, senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to former president George W. Bush, appeared on Fox News’ America Reports following a White House press briefing on Friday to warn that “we’ve had good inflation numbers, but it’s only one month.” He then urged the White House to “temper” its language around tariffs.
“One of the problems that we had under Biden was we had happy talk. ‘Bidenomics is working,’ and people didn’t believe it,” he said. “Inflation was growing dramatically.”
Rove explained how consumer sentiment has dropped by 11 points since last month to 50.8 points, according to the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index. The only time that number has been worse, he noted, was during the 2008 recession.
“So the administration has got to temper its talk by saying, ‘Look, we’re in an important moment. Things will get better, but we’ve got to push through it.’ And that’s going to require delivering results quickly on the tariff actions,” he said.
Rove added: “The important thing to remember is trade makes us richer.”
Friday’s press briefing focused heavily on Trump backing down on his sweeping tariffs on Tuesday, marking a tentative pause on his trade war after saying that people were getting “a little bit yippy.”
When asked why consumer confidence in the U.S. is so low, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated Trump’s claims that this was a “period of transition,” and that he “wants consumers to trust in him, and they should trust in him.”
“I think there’s great optimism in this economy, great optimism for the American people,” she said. “A lot of reason for the people to feel optimistic.”
Leavitt said that “very good progress has been made” in regards to tariff negotiations for the first deal between the U.S. and another country, adding that the administration has also heard “from more than 75 countries around the world” with an interest in negotiating.
Though Trump has brought tariffs on many countries back down to 10 percent, he has refused to roll back on China. Instead, on Thursday, he announced 145 percent tariffs on imports from the country, with China retaliating by raising their tariffs on U.S. goods to 125 percent.
“The president made it very clear when the United States is punched, he will punch back harder,” Leavitt said.
China has warned that “if the U.S. insists on going its own way, China will fight to the end.”
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