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Andrea Austria / Media Matters

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MAGA media distort decades-old clips of Democrats to distract from Trump's tariff chaos

The president’s apologists are trying to excuse Trump's global trade war by highlighting clips of Democrats criticizing Chinese trade practices dating back to the '90s

Written by Zachary Pleat

Published

Following global stock market turmoil from Trump’s April 2 announcement of bogus tariff rates that amount to one of the biggest tax hikes in U.S. history, right-wing media are attempting to distract from Trump’s ruinous trade policy by re-airing decades-old clips of Democratic politicians criticizing China. Trump's right-wing apologists are distorting the context of these nearly 30-year-old arguments to pretend that they apply to the current international economic order or have anything to do with Trump’s haphazard lurch into a global trade war.

In reality, Trump’s trade war isn’t even against China; it’s being waged against the entire world in a purported effort to revive jobs that simply no longer exist in the United States. Regardless of the arguments that were made in the 1990s, “you can’t put the genie back in the bottle” in 2025.

    • Conservative influencer account “MAZE”: “Incredible clip from 1996. Nancy Pelosi on tariffs and the trade deficit with China.” [Twitter/X, 4/3/25]
    • Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum played a 1996 clip of Pelosi on tariffs, and added: “Good point, Nancy.” MacCallum continued: “That is an interesting contrast to the Democratic criticism of today for President Trump's global tariffs which have only been in effect for not even 24 hours. But they have decided that it's an idea that should be dead on arrival, but Nancy Pelosi thought it made a lot of sense back in the 1990s.” [Fox News, The Story, 4/3/25]
    • Fox anchor Bret Baier also aired a nearly 30-year-old clip of Pelosi talking about tariffs: “That's former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi June 27, 1996, talking about tariffs and how it's unfair, especially when it comes to China.” [Fox News, Special Report, 4/3/25]
    • Breitbart: “Watch: Nancy Pelosi in 1996 Assails U.S. Free Trade with China: ‘Is This Reciprocal?’” [Breitbart, 4/3/25]
    • Fox host Jesse Watters: “Here's Nancy from ‘96 — she sounded like Trump in a pantsuit.” Watters added: “Nancy used to be a patriot, but then all of her pillow talk with Paulie P made her $200 million, and now all she cares about is her portfolio, not the American people.” Watters also aired a clip of Sanders talking about China in 2008. [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 4/3/25]
    • Fox host Sean Hannity: “Even Nancy Pelosi promoted tariffs as a critical tool to protect American industry against unfair practices of foreign countries — sounds like Trump.” “The only difference is Pelosi changed, Trump did not,” Hannity concluded. [Fox News, Hannity, 4/3/25]
    • Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk: “Nancy Pelosi endorses reciprocal tariffs on China in 1996.” [Twitter/X, 4/3/25]
    • The Federalist’s Eddie Scarry: “Here is Pres Trump giving a very similar speech to the one he gave on tariffs yesterday except he looks a little like Nancy Pelosi for some reason. It was the 90s, I guess.” [Twitter/X, 4/3/25]
    • Right-wing influencer Alexander Muse, known online as “Amuse”: “TARIFFS: In 1988, Donald Trump declared that foreign nations should be made to pay tariffs. In 1996, Nancy Pelosi urged Congress to support reciprocal tariffs, a sentiment echoed by Bernie Sanders in 2008 and Barack Obama in 2018.” [Twitter/X, 4/4/25]
    • Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade: “What’s amazing to me, guys, is that Nancy Pelosi sounds like Donald Trump today. Our great staff got this fantastic clip from 1996.” Co-host Ainsley Earhardt concluded: “She sounds like Donald Trump now — that's how far their party has gone. It's either that or they just hate Donald Trump so much, they're melting down.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 4/4/25]
    • Fox senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich: “House Dems [are] planning to force a vote to undo the national emergency that underpins the president’s tariff authority, but former Speaker Nancy Pelosi had a different tune back in 1996.” [Fox Business, Varney & Co., 4/4/25]
    • Fox News: “FLASHBACK: 30 years ago, Nancy Pelosi demanded Congress confront Chinese tariffs on American goods.” The Fox article’s subheadline stated: “Despite opposing Trump's current tariff policy, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., questioned free trade in a 2008 Senate speech.” [FoxNews.com, 4/4/25]
    • Fox’s Outnumbered aired clips of Pelosi, Sanders, and Barack Obama criticizing China on trade decades ago. Co-host and former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said: “Oh, how interesting how you just have this riveting change in heart when the guy’s named Donald Trump.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 4/4/25]