Fox News host Sean Hannity selectively edited a response from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt to make it seem as though she had dominated a reporter. In reality, Leavitt gave an egregiously incorrect response to a question about President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
During Tuesday’s White House press briefing, Josh Boak of the Associated Press asked about Trump’s tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China and their impact on American consumers. When importing tariffed goods, American businesses pay the tariff to the U.S. government and typically pass on the increased cost to consumers in the form of higher prices.
Boak noted Trump’s campaign pledge to cut taxes and juxtaposed it with the president’s significant focus on tariffs. Leavitt responded by falsely claiming that exporting countries pay tariffs and bizarrely insisted that tariffs are actually tax cuts for Americans:
BOAK: When President Trump last addressed the [Business Roundtable] when he was on the campaign trail, his big push was on tax cuts. He’s going there today …