'Not a winning message': Ex-Trump aide warns tariffs will 'tank' markets and poll numbers

President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs are set to snap into place Wednesday – which he calls "Liberation Day" – but one of his former aides warned those could sink his popularity.

The president is due to announce his tariff plan in a Rose Garden address, which has set investors on edge, and his former White House aide Alyssa Farah Griffin told "CNN News Central" that even Trump's base understood that tariffs on imports would result in higher costs for consumers.

"You mentioned tariffs – that's pretty much the worst news that you could be announcing today," Griffin said. "The No. 1 thing Donald Trump needs to get his arms around is the cost of living, and that's where his numbers keep sinking."

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Host John Berman presented some polling that shows 58 percent of voters say tariffs will hurt the economy, compared with just 28 percent who believe they'll help, and an identical 58 percent say they'll increase inflation, compared to 30 percent who say they will decrease inflation.

"Yeah, and Fox News had a poll that said 69 percent of voters think tariffs are going to increase prices," Griffin said. "So, you know, Donald Trump's favorite news network, their viewers agree. Listen, when I worked for Trump, he believes in tariffs – it's one of the core policy issues he truly thinks work. He believes in onshoring more American jobs, he thinks Americans are taken advantage of, but in the first term, there were people around him like Steve Mnuchin, Robert Lighthizer, Mike Pence, who would say, 'Okay, use them in a targeted way as sort of leverage to get better deals for Americans, but do not do sweeping, across-the-board tariffs.'"

"Those costs are handed down, passed down to the consumers, and I'm just not convinced that those kind of advisers are there in this term," Griffin added, "and I should wish you a happy 'Liberation Day' today. I think that you're going to wake up tomorrow and the markets are going to be in the tank because of what he's announcing later today, and I'm just curious how long the message is going to be, there is going to be some pain for voters. Voters voted for Donald Trump because they were tired of the economic pain of the last four years. That does not, to me, sound like a winning or compelling message from this White House."

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