Cable News Clips

He is trying to point out who pays the tariff. When you say, “the US decides to charge a $10 tariff,” the question must also be answered: paid by whom? Who gets the bill for the $10? Yes, it gets passed on to the end consumer, but who actually paid it? Who got charged originally? Did that $10 come out of the pocket of the foreign exporter, collected from them at the port of entry? Or did it come out of the pocket of the American importer?

It appears to me that this was the fundamental difference. Since the import tariffs are paid by entities in the importing/consumer country, and not by the exporting/selling country, O’Donnell’s main point is correct, and Trump’s is not.