COLUMBUS, Ohio — Republican U.S. Senator Jon Husted does not share the Trump administration’s enthusiasm for tariffs, he said for the first time, as affordability becomes the main concern ahead of the 2026 election.
Nearly a year on the job, President Donald Trump continues to blame former President Joe Biden for the worsening economy.
"Caused prices to be higher than ever before," Trump said in a speech Wednesday night.
In a one-on-one interview with Husted, he echoed Trump.
"The Biden administration did create the inflationary problem," the senator said.
But small business owners say they are most impacted by tariffs, import taxes that Trump puts into place or threatens — ones that consumers pay and Trump said have raised trillions of dollars.
"Much of this success has been accomplished by tariffs — my favorite word — tariffs," Trump said.
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Goldman Sachs found that average American consumers bear the brunt of the tariffs, with JP Morgan reporting that the announcement of these taxes can and have caused the market to drop and investors to struggle.
"How is former President Biden responsible for the volatility after Trump announces tariffs?" I asked Husted.
"No, well, inflation goes up, prices go up under the Biden administration … It's hard to make prices go down," he responded.
He didn't answer the question but added that the goal is to stop inflation.
"What we're trying to do is lift people's wages up — got to catch up to where they were under the Biden administration's terrible policies that drove inflationary prices up," he said.
But in our interview, Husted split from the president for the first time.
"Do you agree with Trump's proposed tariffs?" I asked.
"Tariffs are an interesting challenge," Husted responded. "I'm typically not in favor of anything that would be a tax or a tariff or something like that."
He did, however, defend Trump by saying that the president is trying to prevent countries like China from ripping off Americans.
"Tariffs are part of the leverage for that, but I hope that these issues get settled soon, and I would like, if there are going to be any tariffs, that they'd be as low as possible," Husted said.
This is the first time Husted has sidestepped away from Trump on tariffs. Previously, the senator has completely defended the tariffs to reporters and supporters. He has voted for each of Trump's major agenda items in the Senate.
Democratic Senate candidate Sherrod Brown says that Ohio businesses pay the price of the tariffs, not the other countries.
"You heard the problems around here with tariffs — that it means their prices, their costs go up and down, but what they pay continues to go up," Brown said on Wednesday. "Jon Husted has not spoken out against those tariffs or done anything about them."
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Brown also pointed out that Husted voted for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans while supporting what the GOP dubbed the "Big Beautiful Bill," the massive spending legislation.
"When you give tax cuts to billionaires, you've got to pay for it somehow, and the way you pay for it is by cutting support for small businesses," Brown said.
But Husted defended his vote, saying that the bill also helps working-class families.
"No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, cutting taxes on Social Security," he said, listing off other benefits.
Both Brown and Husted said more needs to be done to help people survive.
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