Jolly on New E.U. Tariffs Threats: Trump Inherited a Stable Economy, Wages Were Up, Labor Markets Were Tight

Wallace: “Well, to your point about the numbers, I mean, 66 percent of all Americans disapprove of Donald Trump’s handling of inflation. That’s 66 percent of Americans. 66 percent of Americans didn’t vote for Kamala Harris. That’s 66 percent of Americans who are available to vote for someone who is against Donald Trump’s handling of inflation. 63 percent of all Americans disapprove of Donald Trump’s tariff policy before, as Christine also pointed out, we’re on a 90-day pause. They haven’t even hit. So before they’ve even hit, 63 percent of all Americans disapprove of Donald Trump’s tariff policy. There are 63 percent of Americans who are available to a politician who is against Donald Trump’s approach to tariffs and inflation, David.”

JOLLY: “Yeah, that’s exactly right, Nicolle. And look, given all of the controversy around the last year of the Biden Administration, the one thing we know is they had largely brought, with the assistance of the Fed, of course, arguably the leadership of the Fed, Donald Trump inherited an economy that was relatively stable. Real wages were up, labor markets were tight, unemployment was down. The stock market was at an all-time high. We were at least seeing certainty, right? Inflation causes a certain amount of uncertainty, of course, but there was a certain stability in the economy that was allowing consumer confidence to reemerge. Donald Trump has just blown that up. And as we’ve talked often, we don’t need to belabor it, there is no broader economic strategy here where he’s going to spend four years pivoting us towards domesticating new industries. This is all done on a whim. And where it does inject uncertainty into the markets, we certainly see it day to day in the markets. It is injecting uncertainty into people’s personal economies. And I think that’s why you’re seeing numbers in the 60s saying, wait a minute, I don’t like this. It is because it is being felt in people’s personal economies. The level of economic uncertainty now is so much higher than it was when Joe Biden handed off what was a stable economy to Donald Trump. Look, you broke it, you bought it, Republicans. This is your guy. You start explaining to the American people why he’s right, but you can’t do it, which is why you’re losing special elections this cycle and you’re facing a generational change election next November, where Democrats are going to be able to tell a very good story.”