Jake Tapper Plays Clip For Sec. Rollins Of Her Praising Tariffs As Stock Market Takes 'Nose Dive'

4/6/2025

During an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins spoke to Jake Tapper about

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Transcript

00:00President Trump talked about tariffs on the campaign trail. I think probably a

00:03lot of voters thought that he was talking about the kind of targeted

00:05tariffs that he implemented in the first term and not these global tariffs that

00:10have diminished, wiped 6.6 trillion dollars of wealth off of Wall Street. But

00:16I have to say he didn't, when he was campaigning, talk about the pain that he

00:19is now acknowledging. And I have to say we're getting a very Pollyannish

00:24view of what's happening from the Trump administration. I disagree with that, Jake.

00:29So let me just finish the question. Let me just finish the question and then you can answer it.

00:31That's not right.

00:32But there is, there seems to be a lack of

00:34acknowledgement of the real pain and panic people are feeling right now. And I

00:37don't know if you saw it because you were on TV, but there was a moment on

00:40Thursday, you were on Fox Business, you were praising President Trump's

00:44leadership, celebrating these tariffs, and all the graphics surrounding you, again

00:48this is on Fox Business, showed the markets in a nosedive. And so you

00:53disagree that I'm saying, I say there seems to be a disconnect between what

00:57you're saying and the reaction in the world. Tell me why you disagree.

01:01Listen, the president has, even in a State of the Union, I believe, he said that there

01:06will be some uncertainty. When we did the targeted tariffs in 2017,

01:1118, 19 with China, I mean, listen, I was in the West Wing. I was helping run his

01:16domestic policy agenda. I was in those conversations. Secretary Sonny Perdue, the

01:20Secretary of Agriculture, put together a fund, basically, that allowed us to make

01:26whole farmers and ranchers that were immediately, you know, hurt and had to

01:31have some mitigation efforts. That happened. So the idea that we didn't know

01:34that there would be some uncertainty just isn't, it just isn't true. We knew

01:38there would be uncertainty. But to take Thursday or Friday, and as we are

01:44basically laying out the vision that the president effectuated in the Rose Garden

01:48on Wednesday, and to say, oh the world is ending, the markets are crashing, the

01:51markets are adjusting. Anytime you've got a strong leader who's looking at the

01:57long term, not how do I make sure Jake Tapper says nice things about me on

02:00State of the Union, oh maybe I shouldn't do the tariffs today, that just isn't how

02:04this president operates. He operates in how do I save a country that for 100

02:09years has been sliding toward decline as we have moved all of our manufacturing

02:13out into the world, as we have bowed at the altar of other countries tariffs, as

02:18we have watched our farmers and our ranchers, again, can't get our corn into

02:22Mexico, can't get our dairy into Canada, have Honduras buying more pork and

02:26poultry than the entire European Union, have a 700% tariff from Japan on our

02:31rice. This is not okay and it is not sustainable. And for us to continue to

02:36build our agriculture, which is the backbone of our country, but also our

02:40manufacturing base, our energy, etc. For us to be able to do that, we have to put

02:45America first. So those tariffs as the economy, the market begins to adjust, we

02:50will see a more positive as we move, I believe very quickly.

Jake Tapper Plays Clip For Sec. Rollins Of Her Praising Tariffs As Stock Market Takes 'Nose Dive'

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