Markwayne Mullin Admits Trump’s Tariffs Are ‘A Tax’ [Video]

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) made a frank admission on Wednesday, telling CNN that President Donald Trump’s tariffs are effectively a tax that consumers will be stuck paying. Nevertheless, the senator said he supports the tariffs as part of a longer-term effort to encourage the domestic production of goods.

Trump has announced, paused, imposed, and scaled back various tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, the two largest U.S. trading partners. The whirlwind, on/off nature of the tariffs has roiled markets and cast a cloud of uncertainty over the business world.

“[T]he businesses seem confused,” Kaitlan Collins told Mullin on The Source. “What’s a business leader left to think? Or an investor?”

Mullin acknowledged, “It’s tough right now” and that businesses “need certainty.”

“Tariffs is a tax and it will be passed on to consumers,” he conceded. “But it also allows us to have open markets. So, if you want to have open markets and …