Bob Lighthizer: Why Trump's Tariffs are the Only Way to Save the Middle Class

A country that doesn’t make anything quickly dies. Former US trade representative Robert Lighthizer explains how Trump’s tariff program can stop America’s slide.

A country that doesn’t make anything quickly dies. Former US trade representative Robert Lighthizer explains how Trump’s tariff program can stop America’s slide.

(0:00) Why Do We Need to Reinstitute Tariffs?
(6:10) The Slow Death of America’s Working Class
(13:35) Donald… pic.twitter.com/2zLcxoNnGD

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 19, 2025

The tariff issue is complicated, so let’s return to the basics…

Everyone knows that wealth disparity is a recipe for civil unrest. The more economically divided populations become, the more their members grow to resent each other.

The destruction of the U.S. middle class, fueled by the deliberate eradication of American manufacturing, has exacerbated our country’s wealth disparity in a massive way. This trend must be reversed. That’s the point of Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is one of this era’s best “explainers,” making him uniquely qualified to break the tariff issue down in a way that genuinely makes sense. Today, Lighthizer joins The Tucker Carlson Show to do just that. Click the image below to watch.

Bob Lighthizer tells Tucker:

“Has the system failed? To me, it’s an emphatic yes… We’ve seen a real deterioration in the quality of life of our working-class people… They are poorer, we’ve seen despair increase, we’ve seen devastation. You don’t have to drive very far in America to see devastated communities. All of this is the result of this failed attempt at globalization, this failed attempt at free trade.”