GOP consultant: Tariffs are a big-government policy Americans can’t afford to take seriously

It’s amateur hour at the White House.

After carelessly leaking sensitive war plans to a journalist via Signal, the Trump administration is now embarrassing itself with desperate spin. The verbal gymnastics from the White House press secretary and the president’s Cabinet officials are so convoluted, they make Bill Clinton’s infamous “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is” sound refreshingly honest by comparison.

Americans aren’t stupid. Stop insulting our intelligence with lies, deflections and spin. This isn’t a witch hunt, as President Donald Trump suggests; it’s a screwup. Stop blaming others and quit trying to rewrite the narrative with political distractions — like announcing a 25% tariff on imported vehicles and auto parts. We see through it. It’s time to own the mistake and take responsibility.

And look, I bet the Biden administration used Signal, too. But Republicans need to stop using “Biden did it” as a political hall pass. Biden was a failed, one-term president who was so ineffective his own party kicked him off the ticket in a last-ditch effort to hold onto power. Doing better than Biden isn’t an accomplishment — it’s the bare minimum. We should expect more. We should demand more.

Fortunately, this time the information wasn’t compromised, and the mission was a success. But this isn’t just about lingering security concerns or the embarrassingly juvenile use of emojis. This scandal potentially hands Democrats the political lifeline they’ve been desperately searching for.

The Democratic Party is in the midst of a full-blown civil war: leaderless, deeply fractured, locked in a tug-of-war between radical leftists and a tired, out-of-touch establishment clinging to what little relevance it has left.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, is rapidly losing influence within his own party after joining with Republicans to prevent a government shutdown. Meanwhile, socialists like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, continue to energize the far-left fringe. They are seemingly oblivious to the fact that they’ve alienated everyday Americans and become the poster children of a woke agenda that helped doom the Democrats in 2024, paving the way for Trump’s return.

Then there’s California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who seems to think a podcast can mask his radical record and make him more palatable to voters in 2028. It’s the Meghan Markle strategy — style over substance, PR over policy.

I was beginning to think the Democrats had given up on winning altogether. After all, Republicans have handed them plenty of opportunities to regroup in recent months and their own dysfunction kept them from taking advantage.

Take tariffs. They’re nothing more than a hidden tax on every American, driving up prices in an already fragile economy. And yet Republicans — once champions of free markets and limited government — are now backing these big-government policies without hesitation.

To many Americans, especially retirees, it feels like Trump is playing a dangerous game of chicken with the economy. Markets remain volatile, and baby boomers are watching their retirement savings erode under the weight of uncertainty and instability.

Meanwhile, there’s real unrest brewing: chaos sparked by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), deepening concerns over unchecked executive actions, anxiety over the future of Social Security, and a president who now openly attacks the rule of law by calling for the impeachment of judges who disagree with him.

Rather than confront these issues with honesty and principle, cowardly Republican lawmakers are ducking town halls, dodging hard questions and hoping the voters won’t hold them accountable.

So far, the missteps haven’t been enough to breathe life back into the Democratic Party. Maybe this scandal will be the issue that prevents Democrats from being relegated to the ash heap of history. Maybe it’s not.

But one thing is certain: if Republicans continue to govern by impulse, abandon conservative principles and turn a blind eye to executive overreach, it’s only a matter of time before Republicans lose the trust of the American people.

This story was originally published March 28, 2025 at 11:13 AM.