Here's what Trump's former economic advisor says tariffs will do to the economy

A former senior economic advisor to the Trump campaign says that he opposes the president's policy of imposing new tariffs on steel and aluminum announced today.

Here's what he said

Economist Stephen Moore said on CNN Friday that President Trump was well-intentioned with his new policy on tariffs, but that they would be detrimental to the overall economy of the country.

"Upsetting the GOP with a surprise tariff announcement is one thing," Anderson Cooper asked, "then to have your commerce secretary who, is you know, obviously incredibly wealthy, who can buy an Andy Warhol Campbell's Soup can, go on television and make the argument you just heard, how is this rollout in your opinion, and what do you make of the actual policy?"

"Well look, I oppose the policy," Moore responded, "I'm an economist, I think that most economists do understand that trade protectionism never works and by the way.

The right intentions

"I would say this, I'll defend the president in this regard," he continued, "I think, I do think he has the right intentions here, he does feel strongly about protecting the jobs of the steel workers in this country. We campaigned with him and we went to a lot of these areas where factories have been lost, in the midwest there is a sense of, their factories have been lost as a result of trade."

"Now I happen to disagree with that," he explained, "but I'm just saying his intentions are really to look out for those middle class workers."

A campaign promise

"The other thing I would say, Anderson," Moore added, "is that you mentioned the fact that he campaigned on this, he did, he told the American people and the American voters that he was very skeptical of these trade agreements and that he would impose tariffs. He has done that, so he's keeping a campaign promise.

"I'm not defending it, I think it's the wrong thing to do," Moore concluded, "I think it's going to hurt the economy, and I hope that he reverses the policies soon, in fact I hope that it's never implemented because you said correctly the stock market has fallen. I believe that because there's about fifty workers who use steel rather than produce it, at the end of the game, this may actually end up costing the American economy more jobs than it creates."

Here's the video of Moore's comments:

Former Trump campaign adviser, Stephen Moore says he opposes President Trump putting trade restrictions on steel, but believes "he has the right intentions" https://t.co/3HHA3MnXsh https://t.co/fiEe7ndm4F

— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) March 3, 2018