Amid an ongoing market selloff and economists increasingly forecasting a global recession due to Donald Trump’s crippling aross-the-board tariffs, the president’s loyalists at Fox News have been desperately searching for ways to positively spin the fears of a financial crash.
During Friday’s broadcast of Fox News’ midday roundtable show Outnumbered, co-host Emily Compagno tried out a new talking point: the president was merely doing an “audit” that the United States needed.
Two days after Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs, which imposed massive import taxes on dozens of countries based on “made-up” numbers, China responded with retaliatory 34 percent tariffs on American goods. This sparked global markets, which had already seen the NASDAQ suffer its largest-ever drop the day before, to continue to plummet on Friday.
With Trump insisting that the rollout of his tariffs was “going very well” and dismissing concerns over China’s retaliation, Comapgno opened up Outnumbered by accusing the mainstream media and Democrats of having “amnesia” by pointing out that Barack Obama once implemented 35 percent tariffs on China. (The targeted tax on Chinese tires in 2009 ended up costing U.S. jobs and raising prices in the end.)
“At the end of the day, when we have these retaliatory tariffs from China, this is the same country that sent spy balloons throughout our country,” she huffed. “It’s the same country that for decades now has infiltrated multiple sectors: intellectual property, physical, economic, the list goes on. It’s the same country that lied about the release of a disease that became a deadly global epidemic.”
Because of this, Compagno insisted, she was glad that Trump had decided to wage a global trade war.
“So, I am grateful for a commander-in-chief that has the business acumen to go in saying this is an audit that we need. This is the most open economy on the planet, the most easy economy on the planet with the lowest tariffs.”
She went on to rhetorically ask when it became a “right and not a privilege to participate in the American economy” before crediting Trump for telling the American public “about expecting growing pains” during this process.
“In the vein of the general malaise of the past, to have a commander in chief that is strong and maintains this attitude of, ‘yeah, it’s going to be a bumpy ride for a minute but it’s going to be worth it,” Compagno continued. “And mind you, with the backing these unions, I think everyone take heart, put on your seat belts, it might be bumpy for a little bit but at the end of the day, America is going to be so much stronger for it!”
Claiming that “good blue-collar jobs” will end up coming back to America “in a matter of months” because of Trump’s tariffs, she concluded by exclaiming “I personally have my faith in the commander in chief” and that Democrats like Bernie Sanders and Obama “of the past do too.”
“They should be cheering him on,” Fox News host and former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany added.
While other networks have kept a live stock ticker on-screen throughout the day on Thursday and Friday, Fox News has largely opted against doing so as the Dow Jones index has tumbled more than 3,000 points over these two days. When the network mentioned the spiraling markets, much of that time was spent telling viewers that it was “no time to panic” while lauding the president — who left the White House on Thursday afternoon to golf in Florida — for his decisive leadership and keeping his campaign promises.
“This is what Donald Trump ran on and he’s delivering. And you know what? I don’t really care about my 401(k) today,” MAGA-boosting host Jeanine Pirro declared on Thursday. “You know why? Not that I can afford it, not that it isn’t important, not that I’m not at a point in my life when I should be worried about my 401(k) because I am, but this is what I believe. I believe in this man!”
Fox Business anchor Charles Payne, meanwhile, raged against the mainstream media for focusing on the economic “pain” that Americans will feel because of Trump’s tariffs, calling it “mind-boggling” while commending Trump for how the “art of the deal meets the art of trade war.”
