TRANSCRIPT: Leader Schumer Delivers Remarks At Press Conference On The Consequences Of The Trump Administration’s Trade War

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) along with Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Peter Welch (D-VT) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) held a press conference to condemn the Trump administration’s destructive tariffs that will raise prices for Americans and cause economic chaos. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Leader Schumer: I want to thank Senators Kaine, Welch, and Alsobrooks for joining us here today as we fight against Trump's trade war. As you see right here, this map shows how much each state would pay for this absurd, crazy, chaotic trade war. But the worst thing about it is that it so hurts American families. It is estimated that the average American family will pay more than $6,000 out of their pocket to pay for these tariffs. These tariffs will cost them $6,000 as the prices of everything go up, whether it's groceries, cars, wood, or you name it, across the board. Why would Trump do this? Why would Trump do this? One reason: he wants to take the money that he gains from tariffs to give tax cuts to billionaires, and when told that American families would pay a whole lot more out of their pockets, you know what he said? "I don't care." What kind of bubble is this man and his billionaire cohorts in that they don't understand that when the average American family is told that you're going to have to pay $6,000 more for the things you buy, it pains them so much?

Well, they can't buy that new car, can't take that vacation they've been planning for a whole year with the kids, can't go visit grandma, and have to cut back on even the medicines they buy. What kind of bubble do they live in? So we have documented in this chart how much each state would pay from Trump's trade war. And it's devastating. I just talked to over 50 people in my state of New York. We're right on the Canadian border. Buffalo thinks they could go into a real recession if these tariffs came about. Plattsburgh—20 percent of their businesses are Canadian-owned. What are they going to do? And there are tens of thousands of job losses in every part of New York State because of these tariffs. They are a tax on families. They don't like taxes. This is one of the worst taxes they could put in. And don't just listen to us. Rand Paul, hardly a Democrat, said, "Tariffs are simply a tax." Senator Mullin said, "Tariffs is a tax"—he didn't have the right grammar, but I'll read him verbatim: "Tariffs is a tax, and it will be passed on to consumers."

According to the New York Times, 6.5 million jobs would be impacted by the Canadian tariffs, and people in red states will be especially impacted from farmers to small businesses. And here's another problem. It's chaotic. He says one thing one day and another thing the next day. He changes which countries. He changes the percentage. He changes which goods. And what do businesses hate? Uncertainty. Whether you're a small business, a medium-sized business, a large business, you want certainty. There's no certainty. That's why the stock market has gone down so much. Consumers, why is their confidence at lower levels than it's been in a very long time? In good part, because of these tariffs. They say if I'm going to have to pay more for eggs or for bread or for gas or for a car, I better not spend now. So it's creating huge problems in the whole economy. So, soon, the Senate will vote on a resolution from Senator Kaine to undo Trump's tariffs on Canadian goods.

And we hope that some of our Republican colleagues will join us in that. They don't like the tariffs either. They know they're a tax hike on the American people. They know that the stock market is in turmoil, risking people's retirements. They know that consumer confidence is down. And the odds of a recession, something people hate, it's harder to find a job, keep a job, maintain your weekly budget, if a recession occurs, and now our greatest financial prognosticators are saying the chances of recession because of these tariffs, this tariff tax goes way up. So we're going to fight these tariffs tooth and nail. Trump's done a lot of bad things. This is way up there. Ask American people.

And one final thing. Look at what happened in Wisconsin yesterday. The American people understand that Trump is not on their side on tariffs, on tax cuts for billionaires, on cutting Medicaid, on cutting the others. The American people are seeing how bad Trump is. Tariffs is a good part of it. And they are not supporting people like Elon Musk and those who support Donald Trump.

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