A 'subversive punchline of irony': Nicolle Wallace mocks MAGA's death spiral
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace on May 13, 2025 (Image: Screengrab via MSNBC / YouTube)
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace is arguing that President Donald Trump's broad tariffs on most of the world — which is already resulting in higher prices for many consumer goods — is based on his "disdain" for the vast bulk of the American public.
On Tuesday, Wallace hosted a panel with Bloomberg News anchor David Gura and Bulwark managing editor Sam Stein in which she discussed a "scathing" Wall Street Journal editorial slamming Trump's sudden rollback of tariffs.
The Journal's editorial board observed that after experiencing swift blowback from both American consumers and international trade partners, Trump was quick to withdraw from his agenda of massive new trade duties on the United States' core import and export markets. Wallace piled on, calling the tariffs a "regressive tax" that hurts the most vulnerable.
"It's a tax on stuff that will hurt people, that make less money, more than it hurts people that make a lot of money," Wallace said. "I mean, the defensiveness on the assault on the American consumer, whether it's the sneering response to [Meet the Press host] Kristen Welker's question about the price of strollers, the absolute disdain for the 30-doll household — I've never known a 30 doll household, but that that 30 doll household can damn well do with two dolls — the 500 pencils, the 250 pencils to five. I mean, just the disdain for a whole bunch of people and a whole bunch of instances that that voted for him. When does that sort of conversation get held by leaders, by the people that run Walmart and Target and other stakeholders?"
Later in the segment, Wallace also pointed out that Chinese President Xi Jinping was distinguishing himself from Trump by positioning his country as a more stable place to do business. Jinping lobbed a clear shot at the Trump administration in his remarks, saying "bullying and coercion only lead to isolation." She then pivoted from Jinping's remarks to opine that China's leader had effectively exposed and debunked Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great Again" as "making China look good."
"MAGA went from being, you know, perhaps a surprisingly effective political slogan on a hat to being like the biggest sort of subversive punchline of irony that I've ever seen in politics: Making China look good and like the better, more responsible actor. Making Europe the magnet for science and research," she said. "These are the real consequences of Trump's second term."
Watch Wallace's segment below, or by clicking this link.
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