Speaking in a powerful interview on CNN that left the network’s anti-Trump host visibly stunned and annoyed, Trump Administration Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins explained that President Trump’s tariffs are already humbling other nations and bringing them to the negotiating table, showing that he’s quickly winning.
Secretary Rollins’s comments on the matter came when she appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” program on Sunday, April 6, and commented to host Jake Tapper on the early successes of the Trump tariffs, explaining that the spectre of high tariffs has brought dozens of countries to the negotiating table.
Beginning, Secretary Rollins explained that it just took a few days for those countries to capitulate and start negotiating, saying, “I think it’s really important to realize that last Wednesday was when the president announced this new American order, the new American economic plan. We’re now two days in, right? You’ve got two days of data.”
Building on that, Secretary Rollins explained that the point of the tariffs, as the Trump Administration sees it, is to pull important industries back to America, particularly manufacturing. She explained, “This whole concept is about rebuilding an American economy around American goods, around American industry.”
Further, she explained that Americans are already suffering the consequences of high tariffs, and have been for a long while, as other countries refuse to buy our agricultural products though we haven’t, up until this point, placed large tariffs on them. She said, “We do already live under a tariff regime in this country, but it’s the tariff regime of China, of Mexico, of Brazil, of Australia, of countries that Mexico won’t take our corn, Australia won’t take our beef.”
Giving an example of the absurd outcomes created by the tariff regime placed on us by other countries, Secretary Rollins noted that the tiny country of Honduras buys more of our pork than the entirety of the European Union does, saying, “The country of Honduras takes more pork than the entire European Union does, American pork, I should say.”
Secretary Rollins then explained that, because of that entirely unfair regime, major change is needed so that Americans can prosper. She said, “So, from our farming and ranching perspective, which is what I’m focused on, but happy to talk about anything that it has to, it is time for a change. That’s what this president evoked last Wednesday.”
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Turning from the need for change to the early wins the Trump Administration is already notching, the secretary then noted that over 4 dozen countries had capitulated and made their way to the negotiating table. She said, “So I think we’ll see in short order, a really positive outcome from this. We already have 50 countries that have come to the table over the last few days, over the last weeks that are willing and desperate to talk to us.”
Concluding, she noted that America is an economic powerhouse and needs to use that might to stand up for itself, saying, “We are the economic engine of the world, and it’s finally time that someone, President Trump, stood up for America.” Watch Secretary Rollins stump Tapper here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video