A host at MAGA-friendly cable channel Newsmax has admitted that he was shocked that President Donald Trump’s tariffs had hit his personal wealth so badly.
Jon Glasgow, frontman of the Sunday Report, played a clip of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent taking issue with the suggestion that many Americans will have to delay their retirement because their savings have taken a hit. “I think they don’t look at the day-to-day [market] fluctuations,” Bessent said. Glasgow disagreed, telling his guest, former Sen. Rick Santorum: “I looked at my 401(k) and gasped.”
Glasgow even asked the Pennsylvania Republican if Americans would have the grit and patience to weather even short-term pain. “I mean, do you think that a lot of Americans are gonna give the Trump administration this grace period here while they trust in his plan?”
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“Well, all due respect, John, you looked at your 401(k), and you’re in your thirties or maybe forties, and your portfolio looks a lot different than someone who’s gonna retire this year,” Santorum replied. “Certainly younger folks and even folks maybe five or 10 years away from retirement have seen a dramatic hit.”
He continued: “And it’s going to be—it’s a problem. Look, there’s no question Donald Trump is facing a huge problem with what’s happened to the market.
“And he’s got to do some things here in the very short term to reassure the markets that this tariff policy is a policy that—I would even argue that he’s a free trader.”
Santorum echoed the general MAGA sentiment and argued that Trump is “using tariffs” to get to freer trade. He said previous free trade agreements had always transpired as a “raw deal” for the U.S. “So what Trump is saying is, ‘Look, we can negotiate free trade and get screwed again or I can come out guns a-blazing and get these folks to come to reality to actually get to free trade.’ So we’ll see whether it works. I think the markets will react positively.”
“It’s the most bold move a president has ever made in the history of the United States,” the host added.
Right after the worst week in the stock market since 2020, customs officials began imposing the baseline 10 percent import tax on Saturday morning—with American consumers picking up the extra cost. In a Truth Social post the same day, Trump said “HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic.”
Ironically, Newsmax rang the opening bell for the New York Stock Exchange last Thursday morning—the same day markets plummeted in response to Trump’s trade war announcement.
