Conservative radio host and pundit Erick Erickson slammed President Donald Trump’s newly-announced trade agreement with the United Kingdom as “shitty.”
It’s “actually a pretty shitty deal” for Americans, he wrote on social media.
Trump on Thursday hailed the accord ― that’s been condemned by many top economists and which will, in effect, triple taxes that Americans pay on imports from the U.K. ― and said it was “a full and comprehensive one that will cement the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom for many years to come.”
But Erickson vehemently disagreed.
“First, they told us the 10% tariff was just a baseline for negotiations to get to free trade deals,” he wrote on X, the Elon Musk-owned platform formerly known as Twitter.
“Now we’re being told the 10% tariff is for keeps. That’s just a tax on the American people,” he added.
It's actually a pretty shitty deal with the UK. First, they told us the 10% tariff was just a baseline for negotiations to get to free trade deals. Now we're being told the 10% tariff is for keeps. That's just a tax on the American people.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 8, 2025In a later post, Erickson said the “dirty little secret” is that “many of the suddenly loud pro-tariff voices don’t like them, but want to be seen as team members and are mad at the rest of us for not joining them in lying.”
Dirty little secret is many of the suddenly loud pro-tariff voices don't like them, but want to be seen as team members and are mad at the rest of us for not joining them in lying.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 8, 2025We Won't Back Down
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Erickson also shared conservative economist Joel Griffith’s rebuking of the deal.
Griffith suggested on X: “Tripling our tariffs to 10% on UK imports is hardly a win for the American people— and it’s hardly reciprocal, at > 5x the UK’s level.”
“This so-called trade deal is a multi-billion $ tax hike. And nationalizing (socializing) British Steel at Trump’s behest is hardly free market,” he added.