Elizabeth Warren Schools CNBC Host With 1 ‘Great’ Trump Tariff Observation

The senator hit back at Sara Eisen after she asked how the president’s policy is “corrupt.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) clashed with CNBC’s Sara Eisen on Thursday after the host pressed her over her opposition to President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs.

“What evidence are you pointing to that this is a corrupt policy?” Eisen asked Warren during her appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”

Warren — a top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee — argued that Trump rolled out his tariffs with “no exceptions” only to later exempt iPhones from his import taxes, noting that the president has acknowledged that he talked with Apple CEO Tim Cook and made a “great deal” available to him.

Eisen responded, “It’s a great deal for Americans who have to buy iPhones.”

Warren, who moments earlier had noted that Cook personally donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee, shot back.

“No. It’s a great deal for one company,” Warren stressed.

On Thursday, Warren joined dozens of Democratic lawmakers in signing a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer that described the president’s tariffs as part of a “corrupt scheme.”

Democrats declared that the tariffs also invited “corruption not only through quid-pro-quo arrangements but also through officials’ personal investments” as his lack of a concrete policy “opens the door to rampant insider trading.”

Elsewhere on the program, Eisen told Warren that Trump “ultimately” has the authority on tariffs, a claim that the senator tore apart.

“Well no, he does not. He does not have the authority if Congress does not let him keep this authority. We can take this away,” said Warren, noting that Trump declared a national emergency when he pushed his tariffs.

Later, after Warren spoke on the Trump administration freezing over $2 billion in funding to Harvard University, Eisen echoed pro-Trump arguments for the move by asking how the institution can be held “accountable” for “failing” to protect Jewish students before broadly characterizing the political leanings of its faculty.

“You know what, instead of just mouthing off about what you think is happening, actually present some evidence,” said Warren while advising the Trump administration to “go to court” with its claims.

“You don’t just get to lip off and say, ‘And therefore the king gets to wave his magic wand and say, off with your head.’ That is not how it works in a democracy.”