Rove: Trump’s Tariffs Are a ‘Misplaced Action,’ Trade Wars Are Not Easy to Win

Friday on Fox News Channel’s “Happening Now,” former White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove said President Donald Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports was “a misplaced action.”

Rove said, “Well, I think it’s a misplaced action. The president tweeted out that trade wars are good and easy to win. No, they are not. The last really big trade war we had—started by the Smoot-Hawley Tariff—lasted more than a decade and it took World War II to get America out of the depression that helped bring on.”

He added, “So, look, we—we in the Bush administration—we attempted to help the steel industry by temporary tariffs, they lasted less than a year before they were declared in violation of our international treaty agreements and our trading partners threatened the United States with a very expensive retaliatory measures that would hurt American industry.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.