CNN "State of the Union" interviews for 2025 races: on Free Trade

Mike Rounds: Tariffs are a way to open negotiations on trade agreements

Tim Walz: In trade wars, agriculture gets hit the hardest

Jared Polis: Tariffs are a regressive tax that hurt our economy

POLIS: There's certainly no upside. I do still hear some Pollyannish conservative economists that think that what Trump is doing is negotiating to get better tariffs rates, get them down to zero. That's the opposite of what we're seeing. With Europe, we have historically had a tariff rate of 2% to 3%. This new deal is 15%, five times higher than it's ever been, Americans paying 15% more for many products on the shelf, and discouraging manufacturing from even setting up in the United States. I'm hearing from manufacturing companies that want to establish and invest overseas to avoid our tariffs on the parts and materials they need to make their products. So there's no upside. There is uncertainty. Obviously, we can all hope that President Trump is actually playing some master game to get to zero tariffs. But he seems to like tariffs for the sake of tariffs. They're a tax. They're a regressive tax. They hurt our economy.