Jason Miller, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, said the president plans to “lean into” tariffs during his speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night.
”I would say that he’s going to lean into it, and he’s going to talk about how increasing tariffs can actually go and close the trade deficits, which January, we saw a record trade deficit, particularly when it comes to countries such as Canada, Mexico, China,” Miller said when asked by CNN’s Audie Cornish if Trump would have to acknowledge his blanket 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada that took effect on Tuesday.
Trump’s senior adviser said the president also plans to “level set” with Americans about the state of the country.
“Typically, this would be done after the first year a president is in office. But since President Trump has already served as president before. He’s going to come in, he’s going to level set with the American people about where exactly we are as a country, what’s happened over these past four years, what he’s been able to accomplish over the last four or five weeks. Then what we still have yet to go and accomplish,” Miller said.
More on the presidential address: Trump will also discuss what will happen next in his agenda, Miller said.
”We have to go and get this tax bill done. I think you’ll hear the president this evening talk about the one big beautiful bill so we can keep taxes low and take it even lower for Americans. Also need to make sure to make these border fixes permanent,” Miller said.
He continued, “And then also, as we look ahead, really, we got to look to the future and make sure we’re winning things such as the AI war against China, having a Marshall Plan for energy. So, it’s a bit of where we are, what we’ve accomplished and what we’re going to do, both in the short and in the longer term.”
On the pause in aid to Ukraine, Miller said Trump is being aggressive in his attempts to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to agree to a deal that would stop the war.
“President Trump is the only person, the only person talking about stopping the killing, and sometimes leaders can use the carrot, sometimes they can use the stick,” Miller said. “And in this case, I think President Trump is using the 2 by 4 to go and get his point across to President Zelensky, and that is that President Trump wants to stop the killing. Zelensky has got to get back to the table. He has to take this seriously.”
