Fox News host Jesse Watters confronted Senator Rand Paul Monday regarding his previous vocal opposition to President Trump’s tariffs, which after an historic deal with China, appear to be paying off big time.
Paul previously came out against the tariffs and even sponsored a resolution in the Senate that would have terminated all of them, had it been successful.
Paul even opposes tariffs on China, which has for years gotten away with undercutting US prices while operating with a significant tariff imbalance on imports of US goods.
Now China has backed down and initiated a complete reset of it’s retaliatory tariffs on the US, and many more countries are negotiating trade deals with the Trump administration.
Watters told Paul “Well, Senator, you were a panican,” adding “You were against the tariff. You were anti-tariff. Now, what do you have to say?”
Paul responded, “I’m a free market guy. I think international trade creates great wealth, and there’s all the facts in history of the last 100 years to prove it.”
“But I’m also a friend of Donald Trump’s,” Paul continued, adding “I’m a supporter of Donald Trump’s. When he has successes with trade, I’ve said I will compliment him. If he succeeds in lowering tariffs and lessening the obstacles to trade, I’ll be right there. I think it’s unknown with China.”
“We started out at 145%, then we went to 80%, now we’re at 30%, but that’s 30% more than we have on currently,” Paul further noted, adding “So this will be a 30% rise in any goods that are coming from China, and somebody will pay that—it will be the consumer.”
HOLY SH*T ? Jesse Watters just embarrassed Senator Rand Paul for being a “Panican” and not believing in Donald J. Trump who’s always right
— MAGA Voice (@MAGAVoice) May 13, 2025
TARIFFS ABSOLUTELY WORK ?
pic.twitter.com/WszHKvmeJN
“If the consumer is happy to pay more when they go to Walmart or more when they go to Target in order to get fairness or to teach China a lesson, then so be it. But the proof is in the pudding. We’ll see what happens over the next six months to a year,” the Senator declared.
Watters shot back, “You think our defense industry should rely on the Chinese? You think we should rely on Chinese steel? You trust China?”
Paul replied, “No, I think there are exceptions to trade and exceptions to free international trade. One of them would be defense industries. We obviously are not going to buy our intercontinental ballistic missiles from them.”
“We’re not going to have enriched uranium coming from China. Our defense industry is completely independent and needs to be,” Paul emphasised.
Paul also stated that there are certain other goods that should never be imported from China, US flags for instance, and he made it clear that he is against importing Chinese pharmaceuticals.
“But here’s the thing—there’s a real question,” Paul continued, “This is a serious question you ask conservatives: How do you want to bring a pharmaceutical industry to our country? Do you want to do it by reducing taxes or raising taxes?”
“The president thinks if you raise taxes on imports, which Americans will pay, that it will encourage local industry. Another way of doing it is: China makes four different antibiotics. They’re generic. There’s not much profit in them. What we should do is lower the taxes to zero for 10 years for anybody who will compete with them in our country,” the Senator stated.
“It’s just a matter of perspective. I would rather lower taxes. Raising taxes or tariffs is not my cup of tea,” Paul reiterated.
As we highlighted yesterday, Paul was keeping company with Democrats and their leftist media mouthpieces who spent almost a full month whining about economic Armageddon, before the events of this week silenced them completely.
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..trump has a strong economic background, so i’d trust him over any other politician (who does not have a strong background in economy), when it comes to tariffs and their use. he knows what he’s doing..
Tariffs were never meant to stay in place, they’re just being used as a negotiating tools.