Sen. Eric Schmitt defended President Donald Trump’s decision to implement 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods and a 10% tariff on Chinese exports to the United States, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press” Sunday that this is what he promised to do on the campaign trail and that he proved this strategy worked during his first term.
The Missouri Republican said that Trump “ran on this. This is not a surprise. He talked about getting operational control of our border. He talked about tariffs and improving our standing in the world. He’s doing all those things.”
Schmitt insisted that the imposing of tariffs “worked the first time when he was in office. We didn’t see inflation. We saw wage growth, and we saw more onshoring of jobs back here to the United States.”
Schmitt added that further proof tariffs work is that just last week “Colombia came to the table after that threat and agreed to take criminals back to their country and illegal immigrants. So the fact of the matter is, it works.”
The Missouri senator also said he remains 100% behind Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination as director of national intelligence after some of his Republican colleagues expressed concern about the choice following her confirmation hearing.
He said some people “don’t like her because she’s going to bring reform and she’s going to curb the excesses in the worst instincts of the intelligence community at times that has gone after presidential candidates.”
Schmitt insisted that Gabbard is “very well-qualified” for the position.
“She served our country honorably in the military. She’s been a member of Congress. And I think she strikes a really important balance for a key position of civil liberties, protecting civil liberties of United States citizens, and also our national security. So I still think she’s going to get confirmed,” he said.
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