Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) declared Tuesday that he’s “not a fan of tariffs” and warned they tend to increase costs for American consumers, taking a shot at former President Trump’s plans to levy heavy tariffs on imports.
“I’m not a fan of tariffs. They raise the prices for American consumers. I’m more of a free-trade kind of Republican that remembers how many jobs are created by the exports that we engage in. So, I’m not a tariff fan,” McConnell told reporters when asked he’s concerned about the potential economic impact of Trump’s proposed tariffs.
The Senate GOP leader made his comments after Trump threatened to slap 200 percent tariffs on John Deere tractors made in Mexico, an idea prominent businessman Mark Cuban called “insane.”
“They’ve announced a few days ago that they’re going to move a lot of their manufacturing business to Mexico,” Trump said of John Deere, speaking Monday at a rally with farmers in Pennsylvania. “I’m just notifying John Deere right now: If you do that, we’re putting a 200 percent tariff on everything you want to sell into the United States.”
Trump has also proposed levying tariffs of 60 percent or higher on Chinese goods and a blanket tariff of 20 percent on imports from other countries.
He told voters in Georgia on Tuesday that he would use tariffs to create a “manufacturing boom.”
“if you don’t make your product here, you will have to pay a tariff, a very substantial tariff when you send your product into the United States,” Trump said.
“And by the way, for years they knocked the word. The word ‘tariff,’ when properly used, is a beautiful word,” Trump argued. “One of the most beautiful words I’ve ever heard. It’s music to my ears. A lot of bad people didn’t like that word, but now they’re finding out I was right.”
Brett Samuels contributed.