During an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins was asked about President Trump implementing a reciprocal tariff on islands entirely populated by penguins.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00I mean, they say that you use retail prices as opposed to import prices, and they make
00:03a compelling case.
00:04I'd ask you to check it out.
00:05The reason I ask you—
00:06I have not read—
00:07Yeah.
00:08Well, I'd ask you to check it out.
00:10You should read it.
00:11The reason I ask is because a lot of people are questioning—
00:12I will.
00:13I will.
00:14—the level of scholarship here behind how these tariffs were done.
00:16For example, President Trump laid out with a giant graphic of all the countries where
00:21tariffs were going to—what he called reciprocal tariffs—were going to be imposed.
00:25And you're imposing a 10 percent tariff on the Heard and McDonald Islands.
00:30The Heard and McDonald Islands have zero human inhabitants.
00:33They have zero exports.
00:35They have zero imports.
00:36They do have a lot of penguins.
00:38Why are you putting import tariffs on islands that are entirely populated by penguins?
00:45Well, I mean, that—come on, Jake.
00:50Obviously—here's the bottom line.
00:53We live under a tariff regime from other countries.
00:57We have too long ceded—
00:58The McDonald Islands is not imposing—
00:59—the idea that America goes first.
01:03I mean, come on.
01:04Whatever.
01:05Listen.
01:06The people that are leading this are serious, intentional, patriotic, the smartest people
01:11I've ever worked with.
01:12I did not come up with the formulas.
01:14I'm the ag secretary.
01:15I studied agriculture at Texas A&M.
01:17I was in a lot of conversations to make sure our farmers and our ranchers were part of
01:22that.
01:23We recognized the importance of inputs.
01:24We got potash and fertilizer to make sure they could do their planting.
01:28But I have no doubt that I speak on behalf of President Trump when he would say he has
01:32the utmost confidence in the team and what they have built and what they have put together.
01:38And we are unleashing a new golden age, and we will see an economy that will benefit not
01:43just every corner of America, but our farmers and our ranchers and the people that have
01:47been left behind for far too long by both Republicans and Democrats.