Sen. Ted Cruz, Rep. Julie Johnson weigh in on President Trump's tariffs
As President Donald Trump's tariffs continue to cause uncertainty in the financial markets and broader economy, two Texas lawmakers spoke with Jack Fink for "Eye On Politics" about the issue.
Rep. Julie Johnson, a Democrat representing part of Dallas County, said the tariffs are reckless and irresponsible because the stated goal of bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. will take a long time to implement. She also said Congress should use its authority to check the president's power.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz told Jack that he supports Mr. Trump using the tariffs as leverage to strike trade deals around the world. However, he warned that maintaining high tariffs and inviting retaliation from other countries will lead to disastrous consequences for the economy.
Rep. Johnson and Sen. Cruz's conversations below are lightly edited for clarity.
U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson on tariffs
Jack Fink: Let's talk about tariffs. What do you make of the current situation there? And the president said that his goal is to bring manufacturing back to the United States. So talk to me about his thoughts there, and how it's being executed.
Rep. Julie Johnson: Well, it's just reckless and irresponsible. It's erratic and unpredictable, and businesses can't plan on that. The other thing is, it's not reasonable to expect manufacturing to be able to be happen overnight. We can't just, 60 days from now, produce goods and services that companies have relied on.
You know, people import a lot of things from overseas. You know, Texas is the ninth-largest economy in the world. Because of that, we have a significant trading partner with Mexico and abroad as well, and, you know, a lot of times what will happen is you might manufacture something here, but you order component parts, and you order pieces from other countries to help manufacture that ultimate product. And you can't just turn that switch on.
And so if we're not able to import, or we're not able to plan, then people are not able to fulfill their businesses, and that's why we've seen so many companies threatening to lay off folks, halting orders, stopping. We've seen a tank in the stock market. The unpredictability and the recklessness by which Trump is proceeding down, this tariff plan is really causing havoc on the markets.
Fink: There has been some discussion by members of Congress, members of the Senate about passing a check of sorts on the executive branch as it relates to tariffs. Is that something you agree with? I've also seen some say it needs to be brought back to Congress from the executive branch, where it started.
Johnson: I agree. I think Congress should exercise its oversight, and this is an area of foreign policy that Congress has a check and balance on, and Congress needs to do that. Republicans in Congress so far have abdicated their oversight responsibility to the executive branch. They're giving away all of their power, they're not exercising the constitutional power that they have, and it's really disappointing and unfortunate. Hopefully, in 2026, the Democrats will take back both chambers, and we can start exercising our power again.
Watch the full interview with Congresswoman Johnson here:
Sen. Ted Cruz on tariffs
Jack Fink: You've expressed concerns about [tariffs] recently, saying that they could result in, quote, a bad recession and even, quote, a bloodbath. Pretty strong words. So talk to me about that.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well, Jack, I think we face a fork in the road, and there are two different paths we can go down, one of which is very, very good and one of which is very, very bad.
The good path. I think President Trump has a moment where he's got extraordinary leverage, leverage because of the tariffs that he's announced, to negotiate and secure much lower tariffs from our trading partners around the world. There are over 130 nations who have come to the White House now saying, we want to negotiate a deal, we want to lower our tariffs. And President Trump, if he negotiates lower tariff rates with all our trading partners, that will be an historic win for Texas and for the whole country. And so I am urging him energetically, go down that road. And that would be a massive economic victory President Trump could deliver.
There's another path. And the other path, and there are some in the administration who advocate this, the other path is high tariffs forever in perpetuity. High American tariffs and high retaliatory tariffs from our trading partners. That outcome, that path, would be a disaster. That would be bad for Texas, bad for America. So what I'm urging the president is go down path number one. Don't go down path number two.
Fink: And how do you think he's leaning? Because lately he's, even yesterday, it seems like he's going to retreat even on the China tariffs. So what do you see happening here? Because he has that divergence in the White House of people telling him one thing, people telling him another thing. So where does he end up on this?
Cruz: So, you know, I, as you know, I do a podcast every week called "Verdict with Ted Cruz." I've done several podcasts that are deep dives on the tariffs. And there was one where I described that President Trump on this issue of tariffs. He has angels and demons on his shoulders pulling him in both directions because there are prominent voices in his administration on both sides.
So Elon Musk is one of the angels. Elon has been arguing for lower tariffs, use this to open up markets because American companies, American producers, can win all over the world if we open up markets. I'm urging the president, listen to the angels. And I'll tell you, two weeks ago, I spent over an hour on the phone with President Trump. There were five other senators on the phone with me. And it was late at night, and we were urging him, go down path number one. And in particular, what I urged him, I said, look, pick a country, pick any country and negotiate a deal. Announce a deal where they slash their tariffs, we slash our tariffs. And I argued to him, look, that will, number one, calm the markets, and number two, give people confidence that we're going down path number one and not path number two.
Now that call lasted past midnight on Tuesday night two weeks ago. And I got to say it was a pretty chippy call. He was, he was arguing back, it was, when you have a policy disagreement with the president, he swings back at you. I spend a lot of time with President Trump talking about this and other issues. At the end of the call, we weren't sure how it went.
But 12 hours later, at noon on Wednesday, President Trump announced the pause where he halted the tariffs on every country except for China. That was a massive victory. I saw President Trump the next night, I saw him on Thursday for a bill signing. He was signing into law legislation that I had authored, legislation benefiting cryptocurrency and bitcoin. The Biden administration had put in place IRS rules attacking cryptocurrency, and I authored legislation repealing that. So I was in the Oval Office for the bill signing, and the president was in a fabulous mood. And I told him, I said, Mr. President, you just produced the single greatest one-day increase in the stock market in the history of the country. When he announced the pause, the stock market took off.
So I'm going to do everything I can to continue to encourage him, use the leverage you have. And to be clear, look, the president is absolutely right. There are countries all over the world that have unfair trading agreements with us. They put big tariffs on American goods and we don't tariff their goods. That's not right and that's not fair. Because President Trump has started with these tariffs, you know his negotiating style, he basically whacks you in the head with a two-by-four and then negotiates from there. And that can be very effective. The result is the president's got leverage right now we've never seen a president have on tariffs. And so my hope is 30, 60, 90 days from now, global tariff levels across the world are dramatically lower. And if that happens, that will truly be an historic economic victory.
Fink: And will that erase all of the uncertainty that we've seen and all the market volatility, because people have lost a lot of money.
Cruz: I don't know if the uncertainty will be resolved. I have spent the last several weeks talking to a lot of business leaders in Texas, a lot of CEOs, a lot of small business leaders. And they're concerned, the uncertainty is a very real concern. I understand that.
I'm also urging the administration, look, markets like certainty. Certainty gives those with capital a willingness to invest in capital, to build a new factory, to hire new workers. If there's uncertainty, a lot of people sit on their cash because they don't know what's going to happen.
What I will say is, I think the battle between the two sides on tariffs, I expect that battle within the administration to play out for some time. And so we may not have absolute clear certainty any time soon, but I'm going to keep engaging day after day after day to say let's go down the path to lower tariffs, lower barriers and opening up markets around the world. Because, look, Texas, Texas farmers, ranchers, small businesses, manufacturers, we can compete and beat anyone in the world if we have a fair and level playing field. And I think President Trump has a huge opportunity to produce that fair and level playing field.
Watch the full interview with Senator Cruz here:
