Pro-Trump Sen. Ron Johnson Makes Stark Admission About Tariffs

The GOP senator was asked Wednesday on Capitol Hill about President Donald Trump's aggressive tariffs and their sudden, temporary reversal.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) appears just as baffled by President Donald Trump’s steep international tariffs as his Democratic colleagues and markets around the world, admitting Wednesday on Capitol Hill that he doesn’t understand the “total strategy” behind them.

“I still don’t know exactly what his total strategy is,” Johnson told CNN’s Manu Raju.

Trump dubbed April 2 “Liberation Day” and announced a sweeping 10% baseline tariff on almost all imports to the U.S., with levies on dozens of countries set even higher. The aggressive policy upended markets around the world — and sparked fears of a global recession.

“We know what his goal was,” Johnson argued Wednesday. “He wants reciprocity.”

Trump and numerous officials in his administration had maintained since April 2 that there would be no pause on the tariffs, only for Trump to announce Wednesday that levies on all affected countries would be scaled back to 10% for 90 days — except China, which he hit with a 125% tariff.