GOP senator supporting Trump tariffs despite 'short-term pain'

Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) said during a recent interview that he supports President Trump’s expansive tariff agenda despite the likelihood of short-term negative impacts.

“There’s absolutely gonna be short-term pain,” Sheehy said Monday evening on CNN’s “The Source," telling host Kaitlan Collins that "the president’s been clear about that. Everyone has."

"I mean, if you’re gonna remodel your house to make it better in the end, it’s gonna be really annoying in the short term when your house is getting remodeled and there’s drywall dust everywhere and there’s workers in your living room," he continued. "The reality is that remodel has gotta happen in order to make things stronger and more stable on the back end.”

Trump has escalated the trade war with U.S. allies, such as Canada and Mexico, slapping 25 percent tariffs on goods coming into the country. The president also announced last week that tariffs on foreign-made automobiles will go into effect on Thursday, while additional taxes on car parts will take place no later than early May. 

The president also reiterated that looming reciprocal tariffs, set to begin this week, will target all countries at first — though he's said he could offer some breaks.

"You'd start with all countries," Trump told reporters Sunday on Air Force One. "Essentially all of the countries that we're talking about."

Sheehy, a freshman GOP senator, said Monday that the U.S. has experienced “generations now of countries taking advantage of the strong American economy, the strong American workforce."

"That's happened in Western Europe, where they have not had to pay for a military they had to pay for an intelligence construct, because we've essentially provided them a free umbrella for security," he told Collins.

“This whole broad construct of America first really outlines that America has underwritten the prosperous 20th century for the entire world," the Montana Republican added. "And now what is happening as we're looking down the barrel of unrecoverable debt and deficit spending, it's about time we start to rebalance those tables and ensure that we can bring investment back on shore."

Since rolling out his plans for tariffs, consumer confidence has gone down and the stock market has experienced notable dips.

Trump and his allies have contended that his tariff agenda looks to bolster domestic manufacturing and lead to a stronger job market down the line. 

When asked what short-term pain means and "how long does he expect it to last," Sheehy responded, “We don't know.” 

“And of course, I'll add a lot of the media frustration with the uncertainty around President Trump's," the Montana senator added before Collins interjected, adding that it’s not “media, but business uncertainty.” 

“The media is helping with that. I mean business uncertainty response to public market sentiment,” Sheehy said. “You know, there wasn't nearly as much per clutching when we had record inflation, record interest rates, record costs of good increases for middle class families over the last three and a half years."

He added, "And these policies are meant that digesting 5 trillion extra dollars pumped in the economy is going to take some time."