The hosts of Donald Trump’s favorite morning show were ebullient on Monday morning about the president’s tariff threat against Colombia, gloating over the Latin American country backing down in the dispute over repatriation flights while waving off concerns over higher prices.
At one point, Fox & Friends co-anchor Steve Doocy wondered if Americans would “pay an extra quarter on a cup of coffee to send those people back,” prompting his colleague Brian Kilmeade to excitedly answer that he would.
Over the weekend, a crisis erupted when Colombian President Gustavo Petro blocked American “military planes” carrying handcuffed Colombian migrants and made them turn around, saying deportees from the United States should be treated with “dignity and respect.” In response, Trump said he was immediately imposing 25 percent tariffs on all goods from the longtime American ally, as well as revoking the visas of Colombian government officials and allies.
The tariffs would have likely ravaged Colombia’s flower industry ahead of Valentine’s Day as the United States is a key exporter. Additionally, coffee prices in the U.S. could have spiked as Colombia is a major American supplier, and businesses typically pass the costs on to consumers.
After hours of tensions and a potential trade war looming, the White House announced that Colombia had “agreed to all of President Trump’s terms” and that the country would allow U.S. military aircraft carrying Colombian deportees to land. According to the administration, the tariffs and sanctions would be held “in reserve” and could still be implemented if Colombia reneged on the deal. “We have overcome the impasse with the United States government,” the Colombian government said, adding that they’d receive deported Colombian migrants as long as they were guaranteed “dignified conditions.”
During Monday’s broadcast of Fox & Friends, host Lawrence Jones mocked the “liberals and mainstream media who were freaking out” over the potential trade war, boasting that Colombia immediately “caved” and Petro “recanted” his blistering statement to Trump. Notably, before Trump backed down from his tariff threats, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) warned that coffee prices would soar and Trump would make “inflation worse” as he’s just about “lining the pockets of himself and the billionaire class.”
“So, Colombia is a socialist South American country,” co-host Ainsley Earhardt added. “Colombia, as soon as Donald Trump does this, Colombia caves. So Donald Trump wins! The Colombian government — they finally accepted those flights.”
Doocy, meanwhile, said he “read in some news source this morning” that “this all happened while Donald Trump was playing golf.” Claiming that the president “heard about it, picked up his phone and fixed it,” Doocy raved that “this is how you negotiate” while Earhardt chimed in that “most deals are done on the golf course.”
In the end, though, the Fox & Friends crew agreed that even if the tariffs went through and Colombian coffee was penalized 25 percent or more, the increased prices would be worth it if it meant the continued deportations of migrants.
“Ultimately, would you pay an extra quarter on a cup of coffee to send those people back?” Doocy asked, prompting Kilmeade to exclaim: “Yes!”
Turning back to Trump’s weekend actions, Doocy noted that the president was “thinking yes, but he didn’t have to” because Colombia eventually “caved” to Trump. In the meantime, Kilmeade continued to shrug off potential price increases because he felt coffee shops were already charging too much.
“I already have a payment plan for my Starbucks,” he quipped.
Earhardt, on the other hand, told viewers that they could just go to the grocery store and “buy the one that’s the cheapest,” adding that Americans would “just stop buying” Colombian coffee if Trump slapped tariffs on them.
“You just go Taster’s Choice. It’s instant. You put it in, and you stir it,” Kilmeade responded.
Despite Republicans relentlessly campaigning for the past few years on taming inflation and bringing consumer costs down, Trump has since put inflation on the back burner and said it’s not his number one priority. Additionally, in the face of potential tariffs, billionaire CEOs have told Americans worried about rising prices to “get over it.”
