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Tariff Tensions: CNN Panel Calls Trump 'Authoritarian' Over Tariffs
On Tuesday night’s episode of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Jim Scuitto spoke with Laura Barron-Lopez of PBS NewsHour and Reuter’s Jim Mason, who called President Trump “authoritarian” and blamed the MAGA movement for fundamentally changing the Republican Party for the worst, simply over the Trump administration’s tariff policies.
After a five minute conversation with Kevin O’Leary where the entrepreneur explained why Trump’s economic policy will actually bolster the economy and attract investors, Scuitto brought on his so-called “White House insiders” to discuss what these tariffs actually mean, undermining O’Leary’s entire interview and explanation as an investor of four decades.
The three keep referencing a sentence from a Truth Social post by the President, cutting up the lengthy post and reducing it only to one line, obviously taken out of context. The post warns large companies like Walmart to not attempt to cover VAT tax by charging consumers more for their products. The line “Walmart, eat the tax.” was continually taken out of context by both Barron-Lopez and Mason to imply that Trump is essentially telling the American people that they’re just going to have to suffer higher prices and to just get over it.
As if this is some sort of "let them eat cake” moment, Mason doesn’t miss an opportunity to call President Trump “authoritarian” and “populist”, as well as call into question Trump’s effectiveness as the President, accusing him of controlling the Republican Party by somehow intimidating anyone who disagrees with him:
You could ask that question about so many policy issues with President Trump and the Republican Party. It's changed entirely. The party has changed entirely. The President has brought a populist aspect to– with, with MAGA– to the Republican Party and an authoritarian bent that has led to less dissent, full stop.
The original Truth Social post actually was discouraging big companies who took advantage of Chinese manufacturing from raising prices on goods to earn a larger profit, and was telling Walmart and China to “eat the tariffs”, not American consumers, in fact quite the opposite:
Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain. Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected. Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, “EAT THE TARIFFS,” and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!
Then, completely shifting, the three complained that the proposed trade deals were not coming from the Trump administration fast enough, and that there wasn’t any “meat on the bones” of what the President was saying.
According to Barron-Lopez, “They’re repeatedly saying that- that the deals are around the corner, that there are a bunch of deals in the works that they're going to happen. But again, I think that that's a lot of rhetoric privately, publicly. And so far there hasn't been much meat on the bones.”
She even huffed about a trade deal struck with one of America’s longest allies. “And you saw that they rolled out the deal or the agreement with the U.K. But again, it was not you know, the U.K. is not one of those major countries that I think people are waiting for a big trade deal,” she said.
They, of course, failed to mention the specifics of the trade deal and dismiss it as miniscule, and dismiss how beneficial the UK deal is for American farmers and ranchers by expanding US agricultural trade into the United Kingdom, specifically for beef farmers, and has been praised by agricultural, beef, and dairy farmers’ associations across the country as a win for American farmers and their families.
The left may not think there is much meat on the bones of these trade deals, but it seems like there will be plenty of American beef.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read.
CNNs The Source with Kaitlan Collins
May 20th 2025
9:35 PM EST
(…)
KEVIN O’LEARY: So you know, Trump– I understand what he's doing. And I must say something about this whole thing. If you're an investor like I am, you've got to get away from the noise and focus on the signal, because Trump is a very noisy guy. He's bombastic, but there's a signal in there somewhere, and he's adding a VAT tax to America. And I get it. Most economies are very successful with vat taxes of seven to 14 percent. So if he ends up at 10, we're right in the middle.
JIM SCUITTO: But let me ask you a question; have you figured out what Trump's ultimate goal is? Because he said two things. One, he said about evening access out, right? You know, evening– evening the tariffs out. But he's also said he wants to return manufacturing to this country. He seems to have been mentioning that less lately. Right? Was that ever really the goal?
O’LEARY: There are certain things we'll never manufacture here again. Toys for example –
SCUITTO: Cloths.
O’LEARY: - not a not a lot of value add building a doll out of plastic. But when we get into technology and DNA sequencing machines are being ripped off by China, and it's a complicated situation.
Every single product in America that gets to a $5 million run rate gets ripped off by China and sold all over the world at a 40 percent to 30 percent discount. That's not okay. And we got to fix that problem because millions of American companies go out of business as a result of that. That's the signal in what Trump is doing. And I agree with him on that. The noise is, you know, you got to be careful as an investor.
I don't shill for politicians, I shill for policy. As soon as he tells me what the policy is, I will adjust, as will millions of other investors. We're waiting for the policy. It's– it's erratic right now. No other administration has ever tried to negotiate 60 deals at once. I mean, that's something else, but 17 matter, and I expect to see some deals. China is a special thing. I want to fix China. So I am giving him, as far as I’m concerned, go get ‘em.
SCUITTO: We will be watching closely. Kevin O’Leary, thanks so much. My White House insiders are back. So tell us, I mean, Laura, do you see the policy that Kevin O'Leary is looking for? Because certainly the tariff rates have swung back and forth quite dramatically in the span of weeks and sometimes days.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: And no, I mean. If Mr. O'Leary can't find the policy, I'm not sure I can find the policy. But yeah, you know, the President has repeatedly tried to say that on one hand, he thinks that, you know, other countries should pay for the tariffs, that it's a tax on other countries, that it's not a tax on American consumers–
SCUITTO: But clearly that’s not the case.
BARRON-LOPEZ: –Right, that's not the case. Because then also this weekend with saying, “Walmart, eat the tax”, is essentially saying to American companies, I need you to do this. And there are a lot of companies that are saying, no, we're not going to. I mean, Home Depot has been in the past friendly to Trump and to his policies. They appeared to try to say very tepidly, look, we may not raise prices right now, but there are just some goods that we're not going to have altogether. So, but I think, the vast majority of companies and the majority of economists that you talk to will say that this is not sound policy, so far.
SCUITTO: Jeff, when I hear a president direct companies to change their prices, that sounds to me like price controls. And I wonder, given Republican traditional Republican policy positions, why aren't Republicans up in arms about the pressure that Trump is applying to– well, a place like Walmart– one of America's biggest, most successful companies?
JEFF MASON: You could ask that question about so many policy issues with President Trump and the Republican Party. It's changed entirely. The party has changed entirely. The President has brought a populist aspect to– with, with MAGA– to the Republican Party and an authoritarian bent that has led to less dissent, full stop. And we saw that in our discussion earlier about the tax bill.
Why are they not challenging it? I don't know, there's lots of things that they're not challenging. That said, I think your– your question about telling companies to do this or that on prices. The companies don't have to listen.
SCUITTO: And some are mentioning they’re not listening.
Mr. O’Leary mentioned the trade deals. They have not come as fast as President Trump and his advisers said they would, right? They were supposedly just on the doorstep of so many of these. What do you hear from the White House? Are they saying that there is a lot of good news to come, or are they finding it's harder to get the other side to sign on the dotted line?
BARRON-LOPEZ: They’re repeatedly saying that- that the deals are around the corner, that there are a bunch of deals in the works that they're going to happen. But again, I think that that's a lot of rhetoric privately, publicly. And so far there hasn't been much meat on the bones.
And you saw that they rolled out the deal or the agreement with the UK. But again, it was not you know, the UK is not one of those major countries that I think people are waiting for a big trade deal.
SCUITTO: And the UK happens to be one that we have a surplus with, right?
MASON: What matters–
SCUITTO: Difference in some of the other relationships.
MASON: –I would just add that what matters is whether or not they extend that deadline. There was a self-imposed deadline, the 90 days, if they decide to make it longer, they can.
SCUITTO: Jeff, Laura, thanks so much.
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