During Tuesday’s House Oversight Committee hearing, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) questioned Chris Power, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Hadrian, about the effect of President Trump’s tariffs on U.S. manufacturing.
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00:00I recognize Mr. Conniff from California for five minutes.
00:03Thank you, Mr. Chair.
00:05Mr. Power, I appreciated your testimony and your focus on innovation,
00:13your focus on stabilizing demand, on building capacity.
00:17I noticed, even though you're here as a Republican called witness,
00:21there was a word missing in your testimony, the beautiful word of tariffs.
00:24I assume by that omission, you don't think that President Trump's tariff strategy
00:32is working in building advanced manufacturing here.
00:39Thank you for the question, Congressman.
00:42We're not really impacted by tariffs, and it's hard for me to comment on it directly in this hearing
00:47because our entire supply chain is regulated,
00:50that we have to have everything from raw materials and everything onshore.
00:53So for United States companies that serve the defense market,
00:58we don't really buy anything offshore, and it's hard for me to comment directly.
01:01Mr. Power, you're certainly a thoughtful person.
01:03I mean, if the President asked you,
01:05do you think his tariff policy is working to bring advanced manufacturing in the United States,
01:10would you answer yes or no?
01:12I think we're starting to see countries come to the table and negotiate,
01:15but my perspective is purely China-focused.
01:17So do you think his policy is working in terms of the way he's implemented the tariff policies?
01:24I think we're going to start to see tariffs work over the next 90 to 100 days as things settle down.
01:30You support his tariff policy?
01:31I think tariff policy that means China cannot hide manufactured goods going through other countries.
01:37I'm not asking you it theoretically.
01:38I'm saying the way the President's gone about the tariff policy, do you support it or not?
01:42Yes, largely I support tariff policies to reassure United States manufacturing.
01:46Mr. Kissinger, do you support Trump's tariff policies?
01:47Yes.
01:48Mr. Kissinger, do you support Trump's tariff policies?
01:51Mr. Kissinger?
01:53Do you support Trump's tariff policies as he's implemented it?
01:58I am not an expert on tariff policies, and I would tell you I am an expert if I may finish.
02:04You know, I noticed none of the Republican witnesses mentioned tariffs, the beautiful word tariffs.
02:08Here he is on a manufacturing industrial policy, the three Republican experts are recommending everything but tariffs.
02:17Everything but tariffs.
02:18Your testimony didn't have tariffs, correct?
02:20I am an expert on enabling advanced manufacturing scale up in the United States and not on tariffs.
02:26Did your testimony have any part of tariff in it, your opening testimony?
02:29Of course not.
02:30I didn't come to testify on tariffs.
02:32Mr. Power, did your testimony have any word tariff in it?
02:34No, sir, we're asked to testify on bringing advanced manufacturing factories back to the United States.
02:39Mr. Bishop, did your testimony have anything to say with tariffs in it?
02:43No.
02:43So the three Republican witnesses come to a hearing on industrial policy, and none of them mentioned the word tariff, not a single one.
02:52And yet all Donald Trump is doing is tariff policy when the three Republican witnesses are recommending a hundred different things other than tariff policy.
03:02Mr. Bishop, do you agree with Donald Trump's tariff policy?
03:07I'm not here as an economic expert.
03:09You're all saying you're not here as an economic expert, and yet you're giving us all these recommendations for how we build an industrial base.
03:16Is it that you don't have any expertise that we should just pick up any random citizen, or are you here as some economic expertise on industrial policy?
03:28Is that for me?
03:29Yes.
03:30Oh, sorry.
03:31I misspoke on this.
03:32I mean, on tariffs, this is just not one of the – I mean, like these guys as well, we're focused on building companies here.
03:37But I don't understand how we don't have a – the president of the United States is saying the way to build manufacturing is to have these tariff policies.
03:44You're here to testify on manufacturing, how we're going to build it.
03:47You're telling me you don't have an opinion on whether the Trump tariff policy is successful or not?
03:51We're here to represent private industry, people who are actually building companies, not people who are theoretical.
03:57This is not a theoretical matter.
03:59He's implemented tariffs.
04:00I'm not even trying to trick you.
04:01I'm saying, do you agree with all his tariff policies, or do you disagree with them?
04:05Or are you so afraid that you don't know what to say?
04:09I think all of us have been really clear.
04:11We're here to – this is not what we're here to talk about.
04:13But do you agree with it or disagree with it?
04:18Yes or no?
04:19I mean, you could say either thing.
04:21I have the same position as these guys.
04:23We're here to talk about how to incentivize more manufacturing and industrial jobs.
04:26Right, but do you think that the president's tariff policies are doing that or not?
04:31I think it's a mix.
04:32I think what you're – as Chris said –
04:33Some of it is correct and some of it is wrong.
04:37You think some of Trump's tariff policies haven't worked?
04:42No, I'm saying I agree with actually what Chris was saying, is that what we've seen so far has been –
04:47and what we're going to be seeing over the next 90 to 100 days has been really interesting,
04:50especially as more countries are coming back to the table.
04:52But I can't tell the future.
04:54It's my godly to be that all three of you are so afraid of criticizing Donald Trump
04:56that even though you don't mention tariffs in any of your testimonies,
05:00none of you are willing to say that this policy is totally backfiring.
05:04I just don't want to try to predict the near future.
05:06I'm not a mind reader.
05:07I don't know what's going on in the minds of the counterparties in other countries,
05:11and I think this is an inappropriate place to be asked.
05:13It's inappropriate to ask you about tariff policy in a manufacturing hearing
05:17when that's the president's policy.
05:19Anyway, my time has expired.