Fox News White House Correspondent Peter Doocy confronted Karoline Leavitt.
Doocy had a clear goal in mind.
And Peter Doocy tried to trap Karoline Leavitt with this gotcha question.
As American media watchdog reports:
President Trump declared April 2nd as “Liberation Day.”
“Liberation Day” was the day President Trump took his biggest policy swing by imposing reciprocal global tariffs that, as Trump argued, would rebalance the economy and return manufacturing and industry back to American shores.
Even before Trump began running for President, he blasted weak American leadership for agreeing to globalist trade deals that plundered the United States’s jobs and wealth.
Trump argues his tariffs will level the playing field as the United States will now charge other countries the same rate for their imports that they in turn charge the United States.
But Wall Street is in meltdown mode with trading in a panic over tariffs slowing down economic growth and causing a recession.
The stock market is trading slightly below where it was on Election Day.
Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked press secretary Karoline Leavitt if Trump took into consideration the idea that some seniors lost big on their retirement accounts in the last month while he was making up his mind on the final tariff package.
“When the president goes down to Florida on the weekends, does he ever hear from — there are so many retired folks down in Florida — does he ever hear from any retired Americans who are stressed about these wild swings in the stock market because of the tariff uncertainty and they’re sitting there on fixed income, or living off of 401k, and they don’t know how much money is going to be left?” Doocy wondered.
Leavitt replied that President Trump cared about the prosperity of all Americans, but that his tariffs were a play to ensure the prosperity of future generations by creating an economy that benefited working class Americans.
“Well, certainly they are legitimate concerns, and the president takes those concerns very seriously, and he’s addressing them every single day. And tomorrow’s announcement is to protect future generations of the senior citizens you mentioned,” Leavitt stated.
Leavitt told Doocy that Trump’s tariffs were an attempt to set up a system where today’s generation of grandkids and their children would have robust 401Ks to live off of in retirement.
“It’s for their kids and their grandkids to ensure that there are jobs here in the United States of America or their children can live the American dream, just like they presumably did. And as for their worries about their 401Ks, their Social Security, I just addressed Social Security. This President is always going to protect it for our tax-paying senior citizens,” Leavitt continued.
But then Doocy stuck Leavitt with the hard question – what if Trump and his advisors are wrong.
“And you said that the president right now is with the trade and tariff team. They are very confident that this is all going to work. But what if they’re wrong?” Doocy inquired.
Leavitt shot back that President Trump and his team wouldn’t be wrong and noted that major companies like Oracle, Apple, and Nissan were already onshoring production facilities to the United States to get ahead of the tariffs.
“They’re not going to be wrong, it is going to work, and the president has a brilliant team of advisors who have been studying these issues for decades. And we are focused on restoring the golden age of America and making America manufacturing superpower. And again, Peter, I would point you to the investments that have already trickled into this country,” Leavitt declared.
There is also the good probability that Trump’s tariffs create incentives for a round of trade negotiations that lead to another economic boom.
The New York Times reported that the Center for a New American Security ran a war game exercise on the tariffs and found that, much to the left’s surprise, the tariffs spurred nations around the world to deal with the United States, creating more favorable economic conditions for all involved.
“The team that represented Europe decided to drop some of its trade barriers in return for Mr. Trump taking off some of his tariffs. The United States lifted many of its tariffs on Canada and Mexico and ended up refreshing its trade deal,” the Times exclusively reported.