CNBC senior economics reporter Steve Liesman pulled no punches with his blistering analysis of Donald Trump’s economic policies, in particular the tariffs the president keeps proposing and then, in some cases, pulling back on.
“I’m going to say this at risk of my job but what President Trump is doing is insane. It is absolutely insane,” Liesman said on Tuesday’s broadcast of “The Exchange.”
“And now he’s saying he’s putting 50% tariffs on Canada unless they agree to become the 51st state,” the journalist continued. “That is insane. There is just no other way of describing it.”
There are currently “no bounds” around Trump when compared to his first term when “there were people around him who seemed to … I don’t know what the word is … but smooth over some of the edges,” Liesman lamented.
“The other thing that’s not talked about,” he added, “is what’s going on within the administration in terms of how they’re treating the Constitution and laws.”
“I think all of that is bad for the attraction of capital,” Liesman argued. “We need massive amounts of capital if we want to fund our deficits, pay for the things we want to pay for, sell our bonds and have high stock prices. And it seems as if this administration is doing everything it can to chase foreign capital away.”
“Insanity is not a strategy,” he said.
Watch the full analysis here:
