CNN’s resident MAGA pundit found himself drowned out by laughter as he tried to justify Donald Trump’s import tariffs in a panel discussion.
Scott Jennings, 48, is one of Trump’s most loyal advocates on a TV network the 80-year-old president loves to hate, and is thought to be angling to replace Karoline Leavitt as White House press secretary.
Jennings went to bat for Trump on Wednesday during a roundtable discussion on CNN Newsnight after former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio criticized the president’s tariffs agenda for causing nothing but “chaos.”
“I have a sincere question for you three. You all are very concerned about the tariffs as taxes,” he told de Blasio, academic Lauren A. Wright, and political strategist Ana Navarro, who were also on the panel.
Jennings was referring to the criticism that trade levies on imports from other countries effectively act as a domestic tax because importers have to pass the costs on to American consumers.
“If Donald Trump told you tomorrow, ‘I’ll trade you elimination of tariffs for elimination of all corporate income taxes,’ would you take the deal?” Jennings then asked. A wave of confused looks quickly swept across the room.
“If my grandmother had wheels she’d be a bicycle,” quipped Navarro before host Abby Phillip intervened. “What is that, Scott?” Please explain: What’s the point of that hypothetical, Scott?” she asked, as de Blasio, Navarro and fellow panelist Bakari Sellers burst into laughter.
“Every Democrat constantly argues for tax increases on corporations while arguing against tariffs, it makes no sense!” he protested as the other commentators continued to giggle.
“You are the conservative at this table,” Phillip told him. “That’s why it’s so, in some ways, so comedic, because you have to bend over backwards to explain the conservative rationale for tariffs, but I don’t see you doing it.”
The pair continued to bicker about Trump’s random use of tariffs until Jennings rounded the discussion off by accusing the others of putting politics over economics. “Why are certain taxes good, and certain taxes bad?” he said. “Because Trump did one, and you wanna do the other! And that’s the way it is!”
