Fox News turned up the heat on a GOP senator Sunday, grilling him over President Donald Trump’s promotion of a shiny new Tesla last week while everyday Americans start feeling the sting of his escalating trade war.
Speaking with Fox News Sunday this weekend, Ohio’s Bernie Moreno saw little issue with Trump promoting his top campaign adviser Elon Musk’s trademark electric vehicle in a PR stunt staged on the lawn of the White House on Tuesday.
“He’s promoting American-made products,” Moreno replied, adding: “I applaud him for doing that. He’s not the first president to do that. Most presidents have done something like it in the past.”
Judging by his comments, Moreno may not have been aware that at least half of all Tesla cars over the past few years were, in fact, manufactured in China.
Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, who was filling in as host, had pointed out it was perhaps not entirely “sensitive to the moment,” given that “Americans’ 401k accounts were facing some struggles because of this tariff war happening right now.”
It wasn’t the first time the right-wing network had raised the issue of optics over the incident either.
As one Fox reporter put it to the president during the photo session on Tuesday: “What is your message, President Trump, buying a new car while there are some folks who will see this clip at home and they are struggling with their retirement accounts down at the moment, uncertainty about work ahead?”
Trump swiftly replied that he thinks “they’re gonna do great,” adding “our country had to do this” in reference to the unprovoked measures he’s brought against close allies over the past several weeks, which have been widely regarded by most credible financial experts as disastrous for the U.S. economy.
