Brit Hume Predicts When We’ll Feel Ripple Effects From Trump’s Tariffs

Veteran political analyst Brit Hume weighed in on the repercussions of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Fox News Wednesday.

Trump declared a national emergency on Wednesday and imposed a series of reciprocal tariffs that were set at roughly half of the rates charged by other nations on U.S. imports, with a minimum of 10%, for an initiative the White House has labeled “Liberation Day.” During an appearance on “Special Report with Bret Baier,” Hume discussed the potential benefits, as stated by Trump. Hume said the plan could significantly impact the U.S. economy.

“Money is being invested in this country. He’s announced a number of instances of that. Factories may be relocated here. All that will take time. Factories don’t get built overnight. Money invested doesn’t begin to show its effects to people right away,” Hume told Baier. “But the effect of these tariffs could be quite immediate. Prices are likely to go up, and they may indeed provide a revenue that would be offsetting revenue that could be used for tax cuts or at least to hold taxes where they are.”

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Hume, however, said that these benefits are not guaranteed and still under deliberation. (RELATED: ‘I’m Cautiously Optimistic’: Doug Ford Strongly Recommends Canada ‘Not To Retaliate’ Against Trump’s Tariffs)

“Even that isn’t done yet, so you can see why the markets might be anxious about this situation with short-term pain and long-term gain and no dead certainty about the long-term gain,” Hume added.

Hume said some people question Trump and his convictions.

“It’s been said of Donald Trump that people don’t think he believes in much of anything, but I think it’s pretty clear from what we’re seeing now that he believes very firmly in tariffs,” Hume said.

Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy this week expressed doubts about the effects of Trump’s tariffs and said they could either expand the American economy or cause a recession. Kennedy said that cutting government spending, deregulating the economy, continuing the Trump tax cuts, and overhauling the tax code are proven methods to lower prices.

“I believe that the recipe for lowering prices is to reduce government spending, deregulate the economy, extend the Trump tax cuts and redesign the tax code. I know that will work. I don’t know what the impact of tariffs will be,” Kennedy told Fox News host Larry Kudlow.

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