'Like a British comedy': Nicolle Wallace mocks Trump with dramatic reading
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace ridiculed President Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick during her Wednesday show while talking about the trade deals the administration promised would happen in 90 days.
Ahead of a commercial break, Wallace spoke to economist Justin Wolfers about Trump's so-called "deal" with China.
"I want to turn back to the other piece of this. I mean, because I think what you just described is how they've successfully moved the Overton window, right? No one even talks about getting back to where we were on Jan. 10th, before Trump was the president who won, we are told, because of the price of eggs. I want to show you the deal piece of that, how that [has] collapsed and how that has become almost like British comedy in the way they talk in circles."
After the break, Wallace performed a dramatic reading of the transcript of Lutnick's interview with CNBC on Wednesday morning. He was asked about Trump's "90 deals in 90 days" promise, which hasn't yielded any results.
"I wanted to ask about that because now, you know, the clock is ticking. You guys have set the deadline for early July to have more trade deals," said host Sara Eisen. "We’re expecting more to come. What can you tell us about the progress of any of the ones you’re working on? We thought Japan, India were close. We got this framework from the U.K. But what else is in -- what else is coming there?"
"There were so many coming, but when you've got Scott [Bessent] and Jamieson [Greer] and I spending, you know, 25 hours locked in a room with the Chinese, we’re not really doing the other deals," Lutnick replied. "Yes, our teams are moving them forward. But, you know, now we’re going to be focused starting today. We’re going to be focused on other deals. We’re going to get them done."
Trump announced the "90 deals" pledge during his "Liberation Day" speech on April 2. Wednesday marks day 70 of that clock.
Wallace said that Lutnick might be telling the truth, but there are "0.5" deals. "There's a framework with the U.K. and there's whatever other, sort of, back to whatever the status was to China. There are actually no signed deals."
New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay chuckled, calling out the "spin" in Lutnick's statement.
"First of all, [these] deals were only necessary after the president created this chaos to begin with," she said. "But there was so much spin there that I couldn't even — I couldn't even understand what the news was. So there's maybe a deal, an agreement about a deal, and there's going to be more deals to come."
That's when Wallace launched a dramatic reading of the transcript.
"So, I guess my question for Wall Street would be, does that inspire confidence for you? Because that doesn't inspire confidence for me," Gay responded. "It doesn't take an economist to understand this kind of chaos is bad for Wall Street. Bad for the economy. Bad for the markets."
See the clip below or at the link here.
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- YouTube youtu.be