An economics professor’s X-rated analogy for Donald Trump’s latest trade maneuver left MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace temporarily at a loss for words on Wednesday.
Trump last week said he’ll soon write to foreign countries to set unilateral tariff rates. It comes as the U.S. has so far signed just one of the 90 trade deals that was promised within 90 days of Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day,” when he announced plans to hike tariffs on imports from countries worldwide.
University of Michigan’s Justin Wolfers told Wallace:
“So, Nicolle, I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this on television, but sending a letter is to making a trade deal as masturbation is to sex. You’re not really involving the other party at all, and you’re not really figuring out the ways to exploit the gains from trade.”
“We didn’t need this whole mess,” the economist added. Trump “didn’t need to impose high import taxes on Americans. If all he wanted to do was send people letters, we could have done this 90 days ago.”
Wallace appeared momentarily stunned at the NSFW analogy, replying: “Well, you’ve left me a little speechless.”
She then pointed out that Trump’s “brand” is built on making deals, but that’s something he’s largely failed at with the current lack of potential trade deals for the U.S.
Wolfers agreed. “I don’t like to do ‘Trumpology’ because I don’t know what’s going on inside the White House,” he said. “But what I do know is that if you always made the bet that moving forward on any particular economic agenda would require a little bit of hard work, they repeatedly fail to do it.”
The “real world” concern, he concluded, is the ongoing uncertainty that Trump’s chaotic trade policies are creating for businesses nationwide.
Watch the interview here:
