During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) criticized President Trump's tariffs after the US economy contracted 0.3% in the first quarter.
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00:00President, Americans woke up this morning to some very troubling news.
00:05The economy shrank in the first quarter of 2025 by 0.3%.
00:09It shrank. It was growing until now. It shrank.
00:14It's the worst quarter in years.
00:16Businesses, families, and consumers are bracing themselves
00:20for the hammer blow of Donald Trump's tariffs,
00:23and it's sending the economy into a tailspin.
00:26Today, today's GDP numbers show that Donald Trump is running America
00:33the same way he ran his businesses, into the ground.
00:38Before our very eyes, Donald Trump's policies of tariffs and tax hikes
00:44are strangling the economy.
00:48Donald Trump's first hundred days have been defined by one big F-word, failure.
00:56Donald Trump's first hundred days have been defined by an F-word, failure.
01:02Failure on the economy.
01:04Failure to lower costs.
01:07Failure on foreign policy.
01:10Failure on democracy.
01:12Failure everywhere you look.
01:14Donald Trump must admit his failure and reverse course and immediately fire his economic team.
01:22Otherwise, we'll see more of the same.
01:24Failure and chaos and total incompetence.
01:29His tariff strategy?
01:31Total failure.
01:32China's not coming to the table.
01:35Manufacturing's not racing back to our shores.
01:38There's no strategy, only chaos.
01:40Every day, he changes his mind.
01:43One day he says yes to tariffs, the next day no.
01:46One day this country's on the list, the next day that country's on the list.
01:50No tariffs, double the tariffs, on and on and on.
01:54And as he's doing this, his policy advisors have different explanations
01:57for what he's doing and why he's doing it.
02:00Businesses pay the price for Donald Trump's failed policies.
02:05When businesses don't know what the president will do next, they can't plan for the failure.
02:11They're not going to hire workers.
02:12I've talked to business leaders, small businesses, medium-sized businesses, and big businesses in New York.
02:18And I'm sure this is true around the country.
02:20They're holding off on any new spending because they don't know what Donald Trump will do next.
02:26His chaos is just totally impeding our economy.
02:34We're seeing it happen in real time.
02:36And because the tariff policy has been such a mess, such a failure,
02:41today, later today, Senators Wyden, Cain, and I will force a vote here in the Senate
02:48to stop Donald Trump's trade wars.
02:51Our Republican colleagues have an opportunity to stop Donald Trump.
02:57Our resolution presents Republicans with a choice.
03:01Stand with Donald Trump or stand with American families.
03:05The GDP number today should be a wake-up call to Republican Senators now more than ever.
03:11Four voted with us last time on tariffs about Canada.
03:14Many more should vote with us this time,
03:17given the new numbers and given that this resolution covers all of the countries
03:22that Donald Trump has so failed with on tariffs.
03:27Senate Republicans know deep down that Donald Trump's tariff policies are awful for their states,
03:32so they have to choose today.
03:34Stick with Trump or stand with your states.
03:37But the failures don't stop there just at tariffs.
03:40What about his promise to bring down costs?
03:43Again, failure.
03:44Failure to bring down costs.
03:46Grocery prices are up.
03:47Housing is up.
03:49Rent and housing are up.
03:50The price of new car is up.
03:52Household appliances are up.
03:53Big retailers are warning that Donald Trump's trade war will make the problem far, far worse.
03:59And foreign policy?
04:01Total failure.
04:02Putin's emboldened.
04:04China's not coming to the table.
04:05Our allies are all losing trust.
04:07He's ready to break up the European alliance over Ukraine.
04:12Doge.
04:12Total failure.
04:13Elon Musk took the big game of cutting waste, reducing fraud.
04:17But Doge is attacking Social Security, attacking veterans' care, attacking cancer research.
04:23That's not cutting waste, Mr. Musk.
04:26That doesn't make the government more efficient.
04:28That puts a dagger to the programs that America needs, which makes our country strong.
04:33The list goes on.
04:36Rooting out corruption?
04:37Failure.
04:38Transparency?
04:39Failure.
04:40Rule of law?
04:41Failure.
04:42Economic optimism?
04:43Failure.
04:44It's one big F word.
04:47Failure.
04:48And while our economy sinks in real time, while consumers get saddled with Donald Trump's
04:53tariffs, Republicans are complicit.
04:55There is co-conspirators.
04:57They're aiding and abetting Donald Trump as he cuts taxes for billionaires.
05:01They're aiding and abetting Donald Trump as he wants to obliterate Medicaid.
05:05They're aiding and abetting Donald Trump as he wants to add $52 trillion to the national
05:10debt.
05:10They want to help the richest of the rich while telling the working people to get lost.
05:16The Republican agenda boils down to five dismal words.
05:22Billionaires win.
05:24American families lose.
05:25This is a recipe for failure, if there ever has been one.
05:30Finally, as Donald Trump destroys our economy, the American people cannot and will not stand
05:37by as he also tries to destroy our democracy.
05:41Donald Trump is everything the Founding Fathers worried about when they wrote the Constitution.
05:47They feared the man, a man who would see the rule of laws and nuisance, who considers the
05:53truth as an inconvenience, and who regards his fellow citizens as little more than subjects.
05:58Either kiss the ring, bow before the throne, or watch your back.
06:03That's the ethos of Donald J. Trump.
06:07Republicans howled at the moon for years about weaponizing government, but no president in
06:12American history has weaponized the government like Donald Trump has in 100 days.
06:17The Department of Justice has become his personal henchman.
06:20He is assaulting freedom of the press.
06:22He is assaulting our education system and institutions of higher learning.
06:26His deportation force is expelling American citizens with no due process.
06:31Let me repeat that.
06:32Donald Trump is deporting American citizens with no due process, and the American people
06:38don't like it.
06:40One of the traits of a dictator is someone hostile to all forms of accountability, to all forms
06:45of criticism.
06:46That is Donald Trump to a T. He's scared of debate.
06:49He's scared of opposition.
06:51He can't stand the ideas of others disagreeing with him.
06:54So, instead, he tries to crush anything he views as opposition.
06:59That is not strength.
07:01That's a sign of deep, deep, deep insecurity.
07:05The more Donald Trump tries to take America down this ominous road, the more he'll face
07:10resistance.
07:11Democrats will oppose his agenda.
07:13The courts will oppose his attack.
07:15And most of all, the American people will resist his hostile takeover of our democracy.
07:21I yield the floor.