Karoline Leavitt took aim at Nancy Pelosi, claiming the former House Speaker should ‘Thank Trump’ for answering a call she made 27 years ago to fight against the status quo trade policies with China
As Donald Trump disrupts the global economic order by declaring a trade war on the rest of the world, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt once again attempted to defend his latest round of tariffs, which have tanked global stock markets.
In a fiery speech on Tuesday, Leavitt claimed that Democrats agree with Trump’s comments that the US has been “ripped off” by its trading partners but just don’t want to admit it. During her rant, the White House press secretary took aim at Nancy Pelosi, attempting to turn the tables by directly quoting the former House Speaker’s past comments about China’s preferred trading status.
“Democrats have long said that the United States of America has been ripped off by the countries around the world. They just don’t want to admit it now, because it’s President Trump who is saying that,” Leavitt said during the White House briefing.
“In June of 1996, Nancy Pelosi spoke on the House floor. She urged her colleagues at the time to fight against the status quo trade policies that have contributed to America’s trade deficit with China,” she continued. “In fact, Nancy Pelosi said: ‘How far does China have to go? How much more oppression. How big a trade deficit? How many jobs have to be lost for the American workers.
“How much dangerous proliferation has to exist before members of this House of Representatives. Well I say, “I will not endorse the status quo,”‘ Leavitt added as she quoted Pelosi.
“Those are the words of Nancy Pelosi in 1996. Well, President Trump is finally answering her call. Twenty-seven years later. Nancy Pelosi can thank President Trump today for the 104% retaliatory tariff that will be going into effect on China,” the White House press secretary said.
Trump announced his latest and most wide-reaching tariffs on what he declared to be “Liberation Day” on April 2. He declared that a the US would now tax nearly all of America’s trading partners at a minimum of 10%, with the baseline going into effect last Saturday, while other countries would face steeper tariffs.
On Wednesday, the higher import tax rates on dozens of countries and territories took hold. Trump last week announced a 34% tariff on China, on top of 20% levies he imposed on the country earlier this year.
But the president then added another 50% levy on Chinese goods in response to Beijing’s recently-promised retaliation. That took the combined total to 104% against China.
Other high rates include a tax of 47% on imports from Madagascar, 46% on Vietnam, 32% on Taiwan, 25% on South Korea, 24% on Japan and 20% on the European Union. China has vowed to take “resolute measures” to defend its trading rights, but gave no details on how it will respond.
