Amid fears that Donald Trump-imposed tariffs will raise operating costs for businesses, trigger greater inflation and further erode consumer confidence, the administration continues to insist they will be a boon to economic growth.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt went even further Tuesday with her claim that tariffs are “a tax cut for the American people.”
Not true. Tariffs are a form of taxation imposed on another country’s imports. Economists broadly agree that such trade barriers raise prices on consumers and negatively impact the economy, according to the nonpartisan, nonprofit Tax Foundation.
Leavitt was responding to a question from Josh Boak, a reporter for The Associated Press. who asked why the president was prioritizing “tax hikes in the form of tariffs” instead of the tax cuts he promised on the campaign trail. Leavitt abruptly responded that Boak’s premise was “not true” and insisted the president was “not doing that.”
“He’s actually not implementing tax hikes,” Leavitt said. “Tariffs are a tax hike on foreign countries that, again, have been ripping us off. Tariffs are a tax cut for the American people, and the president is a staunch advocate of tax cuts. As you know, he campaigned on no taxes on tips, no taxes on overtime, no taxes on Social Security benefits. He is committed to all three of those things, and he expects Congress to pass them later this year.”
Boak shot back with a follow-up that clearly got under Leavitt’s skin.
“I’m sorry, have you ever paid a tariff?” he said. “Because I have. They don’t get charged on foreign companies. They get charged on the importers.”
Leavitt, in signature Trump fashion, made the issue all about her in hopes of changing the subject.
“And, ultimately, when we have fair and balanced trade — which the American people have not seen in decades — as I said at the beginning,” Leavitt responded, “revenues will stay here, wages will go up, and our country will be made wealthy again; and I think it’s insulting that you’re trying to test my knowledge of economics and the decisions that this president has made. I now regret giving a question to The Associated Press.”
As journalist Aaron Rupar put it, “Karoline Leavitt turns reality upside down, then gets mad at an AP reporter after he pushes back.”
Leavitt was also criticized for insisting that Canada has been “ripping off the United States of America and hard-working Americans for decades ” and then producing an amateurish graph to prove her point. She also failed to acknowledge that her boss negotiated the last trade agreement signed between the U.S. and Canada.
“Leavitts out there waving hand-held diagrams like it’s a grade-school show-and-tell, and I’m supposed to buy this?” one commenter complained on X.
“They’re just lying to our faces now,” added another.
Leavitt, at 27 years old, is the youngest press secretary ever. President Trump has praised her as “smart, tough,” and “a highly effective communicator.”
But her often condescending tone and willingness to stretch the truth to fit the president’s narrative have made her an unpopular figure outside of the MAGA world.
“Words cannot describe how much I detest Caroline Leavitt,” groused one commenter on X. “She is something out of the Stepford Wives combined with Children of the Corn.”
