Ron Wyden says the U.S. economy ‘has gone from the envy of the world to a laughingstock in less time than it took to finish March Madness’

• Sen. Ron Wyden expressed his frustration surrounding the motives behind President Donald Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs. He said Trump and his advisors are lacking an “understandable explanation” for imposing the duties and bemoans that they continue to contradict each other. Wyden called on Congress to take power back in response to Trump’s whipsaw approach to tariffs.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D.-Oregon) criticized President Trump’s tariffs saying the president has put retirement funds, investors, and the economy in “purgatory” without a clear motive, after a multi-day sell off ended in trillions vanishing from the stock market.

“The U.S. economy has gone from the envy of the world to a laughingstock, in less time than it took to finish March Madness,” Wyden said during a Senate committee finance hearing Tuesday. 

Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs went into effect last week before he announced a 90-day pause on Wednesday, opting instead for a universal 10% tariff, but also notably applying 125% tariffs on China. Stocks cratered over the last week on the uncertainty, but the market since rebounded Wednesday afternoon after Trump put his steep reciprocal tariffs on ice. 

Wyden said the selloff impact has landed “Americans’ retirement funds, investors, and our economy in purgatory, thanks to Donald Trump’s plan to hike tariffs to levels not seen since before the invention of the automobile.” 

Amid the flurry of tariffs, Wyden bemoaned the lack of “understandable explanation” given by Trump and his advisors in response to the duties. 

“There is no clear message about how they were determined, what they’re supposed to accomplish, how long they will be in place, whether they’re a negotiating tool or a move to try and cut the United States off from global trade and usher in a new era of 1870s-style protectionism,” Wyden said. 

“In the few days since Trump announced his tariffs, the President and his advisors have repeatedly changed their stories on all those questions,” he added. 

Last Thursday, Trump told reporters, “The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have.” The next day, Trump posted to Truth Social that his tariffs “are here to stay” and his “policies will never change.” 

The direction continued to blur Sunday when National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told ABC News that more than 50 countries reached out to the White House to negotiate on tariffs, and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins echoed Hassett to CNN. But Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick did not appear to have the same view, telling CBS News that tariffs will continue for “days and weeks.”

“There can be permanent tariffs, and there can also be negotiations,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Tuesday, before opting for the lower 10% universal tariff on Wednesday. 

Wyden continued to question the plan, referencing a video Trump shared to Truth Social from an X account, titled AmericanPapaBear, that alleged the president is purposefully crashing the stock market to force Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to cut interest rates. 

“Is that the plan? To tank the economy so wealthy people can borrow money more cheaply,” Wyden said. “Because we know that billionaires like Howard Lutnick and semi-billionaires like Scott Bessent won’t mind paying more for groceries or gas.”

“It’s a drop in the bucket for them.”

Wyden said tariffs will cost the average American family $3,800 in the first year, citing findings from the Yale Budget Lab. 

“Our country is getting the opposite with Trump’s pointless tariffs,” Wyden said. “Destroying the foundations of our economy is not only disastrous for workers and families, it makes our people less safe.”

Additionally, Wyden emphasized the consequences American workforces face due to tariffs. He called out Stellantis’ temporary layoff of more than 900 workers, farmers in the Pacific Northwest who can't export their food, and small businesses in Oregon that will have to pay higher input costs to make their products. Wyden worries “Americans will soon be poorer and face greater threats to our national security thanks to Donald Trump.”

“Donald Trump’s aimless, chaotic tariff spree has proven beyond a doubt that Congress has given far too much of its constitutional power over international trade to the executive branch,” Wyden said. “It is time to take that power back.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com