Trump Admits His Tariffs Are Raising Prices

Summary

Bulwark Takes: "Trump Admits His Tariffs Are Raising Prices"

Date: May 11, 2026
Host: The Bulwark Team (Sam Stein and other commentators)

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Episode Overview

This episode dissects the Trump administration’s recent economic messaging, focusing on two headline developments: a proposed federal gas tax holiday and plans to relax tariffs on beef imports. The Bulwark panel, led by Sam Stein, discusses how these policies reflect a tacit admission that previous administration actions—particularly tariffs—have contributed to rising consumer prices. The discussion then broadens to analyze government economic spin, partisan debt politics, voter turnout trends, and the evolving landscape of redistricting in America.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Trump’s Gas Tax Holiday Proposal (01:19–02:37)

• Context: Trump proposes an 18-cent per-gallon federal gas tax holiday amid high inflation and energy prices—mirroring a 2022 Biden proposal previously rejected by both parties.
• Critical Analysis:
  • The move is seen as an attempt to temporarily reduce gas prices, but removing funds from the federal highway trust means less money for infrastructure.
  • Political feasibility is questioned: “Let’s see if they will sign off on a gas tax holiday now that Trump is in office.” (Sam Stein, 02:32)

2. Tariffs and Admitting Their Economic Impact (02:37–03:59; 05:55–07:39)

• Relaxing Tariffs on Beef:
  • Trump is reportedly moving to reduce tariffs imposed on beef imports to address surging prices—just before grilling season.
  • Stein notes: “Implicitly what it is is acknowledgement that the tariffs that he put on beef imports are, are in fact causing beef prices to skyrocket.” (Sam Stein, 02:55)
• Political Implications:
  • This policy shift is interpreted as a subtle confirmation of the negative impacts tariffs have had on consumers, contrary to earlier White House assertions.
  • “Trump is considering getting rid of some of the tariffs on beef, which is an admission... that the tariffs were in fact responsible for raising prices in the first place." (Political Analyst, 07:07)

3. Administration Messaging vs. Economic Reality (01:19–03:59; 05:18–07:39)

• Rosy Economic Spin:
  • The administration (through economic advisor Kevin Hassett) claims the economy is strong because people are spending more—especially via credit cards.
  • Panelists argue this is “incredibly detached" because increased consumer spending is driven by higher prices, not greater prosperity.
  • Memorable Quote:
    • “He paints this incredibly rosy but also incredibly detached picture of where the economy is… Kevin [Hassett], he does this time and again. He goes out there on TV… because he knows that someone is watching him on TV and that person is Donald Trump.” (Political Analyst, 06:07)
• Underlying Economic Stress:
  • Rising prices for essentials (gas, food), higher credit card usage, and inflation indicate economic strain.
  • “That is not a sign of a healthy economy. That’s a sign of an economy that is coming apart at the seams.” (Political Analyst, 06:43)

4. Republican Stance on Debt and Deficits (07:39–08:44)

• Selective Fiscal Concern:
  • Historically, Republicans champion deficit/debt reduction mainly when out of the White House.
  • Under Trump, contrary to rhetoric, spending and debt increased—driven by tax cuts and a large defense budget.
  • Quote:
    • “Calls for deficit reduction and debt reduction are pretty much basically when a Democrat is president.” (Political Analyst, 08:38)

5. Voter Turnout and Trust in the System (08:44–09:59)

• High Turnout vs. Distrust:
  • Despite widespread distrust in the electoral system, turnout in recent presidential elections has broken records.
  • This may stem from both increased polarization and strategic messaging, like Trump’s "too big to rig" slogan in 2024.
  • “Having this amount of distrust in… the results and the accuracy of the results is a huge problem.” (Political Analyst, 09:57)

6. Redistricting and Demographics (09:59–11:55)

• Shifting Districts:
  • Both parties use precise data to redraw districts, aiming to maximize partisan advantage.
  • Recent demographic shifts due to COVID-era moves create uncertainty about whether gerrymandering will achieve intended results.
  • Memorable Quote:
    • “Democrats are still accurately favored to win the House because the backlash against Trump is going to be so profound that it will carry them over.” (Political Analyst, 11:17)
• Ongoing Manipulation:
  • Expect repeated redistricting leading up to each cycle (“This is the beginning of the bifurcation of the House…”)
  • Future elections may have even fewer competitive House seats.

7. Bipartisanship and the Future of Gerrymandering (12:05–12:16)

• Desire for Reform:
  • One commentator jokes about a "retirement plan" to amend the constitution and end gerrymandering.
  • “Be the change you want to see in the world. You and me.” (Political Commentator, 12:16)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Implicitly what it is… is acknowledgement that the tariffs that he put on beef imports are, are in fact causing beef prices to skyrocket.”
  — Sam Stein, 02:55

• “He paints this incredibly rosy but also incredibly detached picture of where the economy is… because he knows that someone is watching him on TV and that person is Donald Trump.”
  — Political Analyst, 06:07

• “That is not a sign of a healthy economy. That’s a sign of an economy that is coming apart at the seams.”
  — Political Analyst, 06:43

• “Calls for deficit reduction and debt reduction are pretty much basically when a Democrat is president.”
  — Political Analyst, 08:38

• “This is the beginning of the bifurcation of the House. It’s not the end point. This is going to be something that happens every couple years, modified with… the most up to date data and statistics…”
  — Political Analyst, 11:48

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Segment Timestamps

• Gas Tax Holiday & Tariffs: 01:19–03:59
• Economic Spin & Realities: 05:18–07:39
• Republican Debt Politics: 07:39–08:44
• Voter Trust and Turnout: 08:44–09:59
• Redistricting Analysis: 09:59–11:55
• Closing Commentary on Gerrymandering: 12:05–12:16

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Conclusion

The Bulwark team critically picks apart the latest White House economic maneuvers, seeing both the gas tax holiday and tariff relaxations as reactions to policy-induced inflation—especially during an election cycle. The conversation is rounded out with sharp analysis of economic messaging, the contradictory nature of partisan deficit politics, and an in-depth exploration of the political repercussions of redistricting. For listeners seeking an incisive and often sardonic discussion of today’s economic and political chessboard, this episode delivers trademark Bulwark clarity.

Transcript

[Jana Kramer]

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[Sam Stein]

Hey, everyone, it's me, Sam Stein, managing at the Bulwark. Look, I just got done with a taping of Katie Tur show on Ms. Now, and we talked about a bun stuff, including redistricting, but the first thing we went over is the economy. And frankly, this kind of haphazard messaging that the Trump administration is doing on the economy with Kevin Hasset, one of Trump's top economic advisors, saying, hey, everything's great. People are spending so much money on their credit cards, gasoline and all that stuff. How great can it be? We have all this expenditures happening from people. Well, the truth is, it's not that great when you're spending a lot of money on essential services, including putting gas in your car and more money on beef and steaks and all that stuff, because prices are going through the roof. What we talked about is the fact that a lot of the stuff that Trump has done, he sort of implicitly is recognizing that it's causing problems. It's why he wants to do now a gas tax holiday. It was a proposal that he debuted today.

[Political Commentator]

Mr. President, are you going to suspend

[Jana Kramer]

the federal gas tax?

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Yeah, I'm going to reduce until the. Let me tell you, as soon as this is over with Iran. As soon as it's over, you're going to see gasoline and oil drop like a rock. Going to be dropping down like a rock.

[Sam Stein]

He said he wants an 18 cent gas tax holiday, which is something that Joe Biden tried in 2022. And you know who said no? Congressional Democrats as well as some Congressional Republicans. Let's see if they will sign off on a gas tax holiday now that Trump is in office. We'll have to see if they vote on it even. And only a little bit of a reprieve because frankly, you take the money out of the highway trust fund and that means less money for repairing our roads and our bridges. The other thing that Trump did today or reportedly is going to do is relax tariffs on beef imports. Now, why is that important? Well, the price of beef is skyrocketing. So tariffs would potentially, if you relieve the tariffs, that would help with that. But implicitly what it is is acknowledgement that the tariffs that he put on beef imports are, are in fact causing beef prices to skyrocket. So now that he's taking them off, is he acknowledging that the tariffs actually weren't great for beef manufacturers or sorry, I should say for beef consumers because they need to get cheaper beef, especially in time for grilling season, which is coming up. All that we discussed on Kat Tur and as I mentioned, we discussed redistricting later on and what it means for Democrats this cycle and for the country going forward. Hope you enjoy what we have to say and as always, do subscribe to the book where you get great takes just like this. This ad is brought to you by Pocket Hose. You guys know how much I love pocket hose.

[Political Analyst]

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[Sam Stein]

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[Political Analyst]

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[Sam Stein]

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[Economic Expert]

The consumer is really, really firing on all cylinders, just like the corporate sector you're seeing in the earnings reports. And they're doing that because they have so much more money in their pockets. In fact, I had the head of one of the big five banks in my office yesterday going through the credit card data. And just as Secretary Bessant said, credit card spending is through the roof. They're spending more on gasoline, but they're spending more on everything else.

[Political Commentator]

To say it reminds me of the Scott Besant line where he was talking about buying your, your 10th, 12th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th home. It's what's what's up with this White House.

[Political Analyst]

Little tone deaf, to say the least. I thought I would rank the best one a little bit even more tone deaf. You know, shaving off that 11th home as a way to, you know, prepare for the costs going up is something that only a select few of us can consider. But Kevin has, I mean, that's his. He does this time and again. He goes out there on TV and he paints this incredibly rosy but also incredibly detached picture of where the economy is. And he does it because he knows that someone is watching him on TV and that person is Donald Trump. And yes, credit card spending is going up, but as we've just outlined, it's going up for the wrong reasons. Gas is more expensive. Cost of goods is more expensive. People have to pay for essential services and so they're putting it on credit. That is not a sign of a healthy economy. That's a sign of a economy that is coming apart at the seams. And if in fact gas prices are not going to go down anytime soon, you can imagine that inflation is likely to get even worse because it is compounding goes into all these transportation costs. It goes into costs for a number of other goods as well. And so we are looking at a summer in which people are naturally going to be going on the road. People are going to be cooking out. You can see right there, ground brief. And the administration is looking for ways to chip at it. So there's two things that are happening here. One, is they're painting an incredibly rosy picture with these types of cable news hits. And then secondarily is they're trying to find little ways to chip at the cost. So gas tax holiday is one of them. But the other thing that was kind of an interesting tell is that Trump is considering getting rid of some of the tariffs on beef, which is an emission. We should note that the tariffs were in fact responsible for raising prices in the first place. So they're nipping around the edges and we'll see if it does any good. I think in the aggregate it's only going to be a little bit of relief and the bigger picture problems will persist.

[Political Commentator]

Sam, I thought Republicans were the one that ones that wanted to get a handle on the national debt.

[Political Analyst]

Well, they do when there's a Democratic president. And that's time and time again what we see. So I was around during the Tea party wave 2010. This was the rallying cry. And then subsequently they get into office and during the Trump administration went up. They don't cut back on spending, they do cut taxes. Those in combination drive up the debt. And look, I mean, there will be cuts here and there that they will propose and I will give I guess if you're monomatically focused on that, you can say, well, they're cutting back on food stamps and Medicaid and all the things. But they did just embrace a $1.5 trillion defense budget, which is an exorbitant amount of money greater than I think was like something the next eight countries combined in terms of their defense budget. So, you know, it's selective spending cuts, constant call for tax cuts. And so the calls for deficit reduction and debt reduction are pretty much basically when a Democrat is president.

[Political Commentator]

We talk about this a lot about people not trusting the system. But correct me if I'm wrong, Sam, I don't have the numbers right in front of me. But the turnout for presidential elections the past few cycles has been breaking records. So even though people aren't trusting the system, they are still showing up.

[Political Analyst]

Right. And that might be related, right? I mean, so one of the rallying cries for Trump during the 2024 was to make the election too big to rig, if you remember. And so he sold his people on the idea that if you just came out and voted in such vast numbers, they can't cheat you out of a win. Now, everything about it was sort of preposterous. They've investigated voter fraud allegations nauseam in multiple states and found vanishingly few instances of it. But it was a motivating factor for his folks. And, you know, similarly, obviously, when Trump's on the ballot and, you know, even during the COVID pandemic, that is an incredible motivator for Democrats who feel very petrified by the presence of him in the Oval Office. And so they go out and they vote, too. We'll see if these trends continue. Obviously, having this amount of distrust in the, you know, the security of our elections and the results and the accuracy of the results is a huge problem.

[Political Commentator]

Sam, when we look at the way this redistricting has happened in the middle, as, as Basel was saying of a census cycle, there are a lot of people that have moved around this country over the past few years, especially because of COVID And are these parties totally sure, is the Republican Party totally sure that the districts they're drawing today in 2026 districts look the same way they did six years ago when the census or whatever it was seven years ago in the census was being done? Is it the same place? Or have the demographics changed? Has the political makeup changed? And are they running a risk of having maybe a lot, you know, maybe a purple district instead of a deep red district after they've redrawn these maps?

[Political Analyst]

I guess both can be true. They're pretty sure they have very granular data on voting histories. They know exactly where to draw these lines to maximize their opportunities. They're not doing this just, you know, with crayon. They're doing it with precision. And frankly, they're doing it in a way that even in a huge wave election year, they're going to win seats because of this. Now, I will say Democrats are still accurately favored to win the House because the backlash against Trump is going to be so profound that it will carry them over. And also the Republican majority so thin already that it doesn't take too much. But here's a scary proposition. What's to stop Republicans from just simply doing this all over again in these same states? Should they see the results and say,

[Sam Stein]

oh, we got to tinker with these

[Political Analyst]

lines a little bit. And then on top of that, obviously Democrats and some of the trifecta Democratic states are going to do exactly this before the 2028 cycle. This is the beginning of the bifurcation of the House. It's not the end point. This is going to be something that happens every couple years, modified with, you know, the most up to date data and statistics that they can compile with

[Sam Stein]

districts kind of revised down to the

[Political Analyst]

street to make sure that each party optimizes as much as they can. And we're going to have a future in which there's probably like a dozen house seats that are competitive. Each cycle should be disturbed.

[Political Commentator]

It sounds like you are on board with my retirement plan of changing the constitution and getting rid of gerrymandering. I'm going to give you a call. No, we're gonna do it together.

[Political Analyst]

Okay. Yeah.

[Political Commentator]

Be the change you want to see in the world. You and me. All right.

[Jana Kramer]

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