Tara Setmayer thinks the GOP is doing a lot of gaslighting to keep the American people convinced President Donald Trump is making their lives better.
In the wake of Trump’s renewed push to place major tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, the stock market took a hit and prices around the U.S. continued to increase. Setmayer – a former communications director for the GOP – explained that the party is having to cover for the president’s choices with a lot of gaslighting for promises made before the election.
Watch her breakdown while on MSNBC Tuesday below:
“I think the Republicans are going to have to explain to the American people why Donald Trump’s actions so far in his few weeks that he’s been in office, how has that improved their lives?” Setmayer said. “It hasn’t and no matter what they keep saying, they’re trying to gaslight the American people into thinking everything’s better. ‘This is much better — you’re going to have to go through some pain but it will be better eventually.’ I don’t think that’s what the American people voted for.”
She continued: “They didn’t hear about that ‘some pain’ part first in order to get this magical better economic situation. The economic situation was actually pretty good under Joe Biden, but a lot of the American people didn’t feel it.”
The Nasdaq, Dow Jones and S&P 500 were all down about 2% on Tuesday, a day after the president said he would be imposing tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico.
Big tech has been hit especially hard since Trump took office – ironic since many of them were prominently displayed behind him on Inauguration Day. Amazon, Apple, Tesla and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, all who were represented at Trump’s swearing in, have seen their shares take a sizable hit since 2025 began. Only Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has enjoyed a price climb so far.
