The old Beltway canard is that the most dangerous place in Washington is between Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and a camera.
To a certain extent, this is unfair to the Democrat from New York, since this is what politicians are supposed to do. It’s not like being an indie rock band or an arthouse film director; there’s no cred to be found in obscurity. (“Oh, you probably wouldn’t like my favorite senator. He’s not even among the top 535 most popular current members of Congress.”)
But to another extent, it also gives the man too much credit, since it’s only the second-most dangerous place in Washington. The most dangerous is between Schumer and his past positions, which change depending on who’s in the White House.
Take his positions on tariffs. That’s definitely a plural, since he seems capable of holding all positions on a given day — aside from maybe libertarian anarchist or North Korean-style autarkist state protectionism — depending on what the guy in charge says and what letter is after his name.
If it’s Donald Trump — an R, for those of you coming to the game very late — and he’s for tariffs, Schumer is against tariffs and thinks authority for tariffs should be in the hands of Congress.
In remarks on Monday, Schumer said that the president “is teeing up a nationwide recession.”
“The Republican Leader should make passing tariff legislation the top priority of the Senate this week,” he said. “Leader Thune has a responsibility to listen to American families worried about the price of groceries, worried about their retirement, worried about keeping their jobs, worried about the future.”
Schumer on President Trump’s tariff policies: “Make no mistake about it: Donald Trump is teeing up a nationwide recession. Less than a week after Donald Trump started the largest, dumbest trade war in American history, all the signs say America is heading towards calamity.” https://t.co/szHUZEs0qK pic.twitter.com/o28jGiGq9k
— Craig Caplan (@CraigCaplan) April 7, 2025
Has Schumer changed on trade just to oppose Trump?
If Joe Biden were president — a D, his party — and he said, oh, something like “I think we, um, tariffing mmm-chi-[inaudible], great idea, God save the queen, man,” Schumer would make a statement in praise of putting tariffs on “mmm-chi-[inaudible]” that afternoon, noting that it was all for the queen, man.
And back in 2017, when Donald Trump was fresh into office and Schumer thought he could piggyback on economic fair play, he was all for Trump putting tariffs on China — so long as he could take the credit, of course, for being the one who was right.
“I tend to more agree with President Trump than I did with President Obama or Bush on trade,” Schumer said in a clip that went viral on Wednesday. “The whole idea for China manipulating their currency, I learned about them … I hope he’s really tough on China.”
2017. Chuck Schumer: “I tend to more agree with President Trump than I did with President Obama or Bush on trade…I hope he’s really tough on China.”
Don’t worry Chuck, President Trump is on it. pic.twitter.com/G01pDMVWKD
— MAZE (@mazemoore) April 9, 2025
And now, of course, Trump is “reeling” and “retreating” because of a 90-day pause on tariffs for most nations aside from China, but he promised that “we will not let up.”
Donald Trump is feeling the heat across America about how bad his tariffs are.
He is reeling and he is retreating.
But we will not let up.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 9, 2025
So, which position is it? Is Schumer closer to Trump on trade, or is Trump a madman for showing the world that, indeed, there is a stick in addition to a carrot when it comes to trade with the United States?
Answer: Yes. It’s every position. Whichever position you need him to be today. Trump could cure cancer and Schumer would give a speech defending cancer’s fundamental right to life. It’s that simple. Ask him about his prior positions and he’d probably break into pieces on live TV from contorting himself into all the different positions he’s held, each of which he’d continue to maintain was absolutely and totally right.
Again, this isn’t a problem unique to Schumer among politicians — an unusually flexible class of people, ideologically speaking — but he is the worst of the bunch, by far, and reminding him that he used to care about how the rest of the world was ripping off the United States is probably going to provoke a reaction akin to that of a mama bear separated from her cub by a clueless hiker.
However, for those of you ever trapped between Schumer and a camera, you now know what to do: “Hey, do you see that guy over there? He’s a producer from CNBC. He played a clip of you from 2017 praising Trump’s tariff policy.”
It may be true, it may not be. Probably not. But why do you care? You’ve escaped a mauling. Do try to avert your eyes, though; Schumer may be an elderly beast, but he’s still a wild animal endemic to the Beltway swamps, and it’s not pretty to see him maul a fresh-faced media type from a financial network who he thinks had the audacity to remind him of his inconsistencies.
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