Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume said Wednesday that rising prices on Chinese imports are hitting low-income families hardest as tariffs remain in place. President Donald Trump is pushing to secure a comprehensive trade pact with Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of their Oct. 30 meeting.
Appearing on “Special Report with Bret Baier,” Hume said trade talks with Beijing could determine whether families see any relief.
“Economically, there’s almost equal concern, it seems to me, about whether we’re going to come to the kind of understandings with China where we’ll be able to lift these tariffs,” Hume told Bret Baier. “These imported Chinese goods are going up like crazy in price. And people, particularly lower-income people, are feeling that there’s no doubt about that. And it contributes to the sense that people have that inflation is not yet under control.”
Research by the Federal Reserve Board found that tariffs on Chinese imports implemented from February through March 2025 have already pushed up consumer goods prices by about 0.3% and added roughly 0.1% to core PCE inflation.
A report from The Budget Lab at Yale University estimates that the 2025 U.S. tariffs imply a short-run price increase of about 1.3%, costing the average household around $1,800 in 2025 dollars and disproportionately affecting lower-income households.
Hume said the U.S. is right to remain wary of Beijing’s promises, adding that China has repeatedly broken trust in the past.
“China has not proved trustworthy on many occasions in the past. And it’s right to worry about that. If some progress is met against fentanyl, that’ll be a good thing for all kinds of reasons,” Hume said.
Trump has hailed a breakthrough ahead of his meeting with Xi Jinping, but experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation that Beijing’s track record of unkept promises should make him cautious about sealing the deal.
“The big thing that Trump needs to keep in mind is that no deal is going to be better than a bad deal,” Michael Sobolik, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “There is going to need to be some level of American resolve brought into this relationship with China, because as the president has said, they have exploited Americans for years, and changing that is going to be about more than just making sure they buy our goods.”
Trump said the U.S. and China are close to finalizing a deal, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirming that a planned 100% tariff hike on Chinese goods has been called off following talks in Kuala Lumpur.
Earlier this month, Trump unveiled plans to double tariffs on Chinese goods in response to Beijing’s tightened restrictions on rare earth export materials crucial for producing everything from computer chips to military aircraft.
The U.S. depends on China for the vast majority of its rare earth supply, with Beijing dominating more than 90% of global production and refining.
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https://dailycaller.com/2025/10/29/brit-hume-lower-income-americans-concern-chinese-imports/
