Scarborough rips Wall St. and the GOP for being in denial about Trump’s 'dangerous' policies

The United States continued to be plagued by bad economic news on Monday morning, April 7, with the stock market in freefall, fears of a recession growing, and many economists warning that President Donald Trump's steep new tariffs will cause prices to soar for everything from fruits and vegetables to washing machines to computers to construction materials.

Quite a few reporters are comparing this economic downturn 2020, when the United States experienced a brief recession and a rise in unemployment that were brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. But when Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist, appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on April 7, she had a different comparison: 2008.

Beddoes argued that the economic turbulence of April 2025 is starting to feel like 2008, when Wall Street suffered a major meltdown and the Great Recession got underway.

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During the broadcast, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough had some scathing comments about Trump and his cheerleaders in right-wing media — accusing them of having a cavalier attitude about economic pain that is quite real.

The Never Trump conservative and former GOP congressman told fellow "Morning Joe" host Mika Brzezinski, "Those trickle-down effects are going to be felt by working Americans who can afford it the least, and they're being told by billionaires that there's nothing to see here. They're being told by millionaire talking heads on other networks, 'There's nothing to see here. It's a war that we had to enter.'"

Scarborough continued, "No, no, let's be very let's be very clear here. Regardless of how you feel about tariffs, this is a self-induced war that we started. This is voluntary."

The "Morning Joe" host chastised Wall Street CEOs and fellow conservatives who were in denial about how far-reaching Trump's tariffs would be.

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Scarborough told Brzezinski, "I spent three months after the election warning Republicans they needed to be careful…. People on Wall Street are going, 'Oh my God, I'm so shocked. How could this ever happen? I supported him, but I really didn't think he was' — what do you mean? He's been saying tariffs are beautiful, beautiful things while the rest of the world has been saying no they're not, they're dangerous. This is what made the Great Depression extraordinarily bad and extended it."

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