Trump’s tariff policy is ‘all chaos and corruption’: Sen. Elizabeth Warren

After the White House announced late Friday it was exempting smartphones, computers and chips from sweeping tariffs President Donald Trump issued against most trading partners, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Sunday that Trump has no tariff policy or plan to implement it.

“Look, there is no tariff policy. It's just all chaos and corruption. That's all we have going on," Warren said in an interview with "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl. "And how can you believe any of these guys? What did Donald Trump tweet out all in caps -- 'I will not back down.' How many hours was that? 24 hours, 30 hours before he turned around and backed down?"

"They talk about an emergency. They've got a 10% tariff on basically every country in the world, everywhere. What's the emergency that we have with Belgium or the emergency we have with South Korea?” Warren said.

Following Trump's tariff pause, markets immediately skyrocketed on Wednesday. However, many experts still warn of high prices for Americans and the dangers of a trade war with China.

“Donald Trump and the Republicans are, it's like they've taken a 5-gallon bucket of paint and just thrown it across the economy and said, 'There, that will take care of everything.' They are trying to put tariffs in place on every country, on virtually every product that they export to the United States, and they're trying to do it all at once with no policy in mind,” Warren said.

Other highlights from Warren’s interview:

Warren on the the courts stepping in

Karl: OK, so -- but that law does not mention the power to tariff, and as you heard me also ask the secretary of commerce, the Constitution itself makes it clear that the power to impose duties, tariffs, lies with Congress. There's also a constitutional challenge here.

Warren: Right.

Karl: Do you think the courts are going to step in here?

Warren: The courts may step in here, but we don't have to wait for the courts to step in here. Look, every Democrat is ready to go, to push back and take away from the president the power he's now exercising and the chaos he's now creating. The question is whether or not the Republicans will join us in this. There will be a vote in about 15 days, and the Republicans can either decide that their entire job is to do nothing but bow down to Donald Trump, or the Republicans in Congress can say that their job is to stand up for the American people and to stand up for the American economy and roll back what Donald Trump is doing. And you know, I just want to underscore here. We talk about what's happening in the stock market, talk about what's happening in the bond market. But a lot of economists are saying and a lot of folks on Wall Street is that we're headed toward a recession.

On the Democrats' stance on tariffs

Karl: I'm old enough to remember when it was Democrats that were pushing for tariffs as a way to protect American jobs and American industries. And I know you've been in favor of tariffs before -- again, not the way Trump is doing it. So what -- where do Democrats stand on this fundamental issue: tariffs, good or bad?

Warren: So -- well, I think that -- I think Democrats are entirely united that Donald Trump's across-the-board tariffs are bad. They make no economic sense. But that doesn't mean there aren't specific cases where tariffs make a lot of sense. If you have a plan in mind, a goal in mind, tariffs can be a tool in the economic toolbox. But remember the underlying here, and I think -- I think you're right to focus on prices and costs. What did Donald Trump say on, day one? He said on day one, he would lower prices. That's what he ran on. Once he got elected, his first interview, he said, the reason he won is because he said on day one, he would lower prices. He's six weeks in when someone points out to him that the tariff policy he's pursuing is likely to raise prices and he said he couldn't care less.