‘We can’t build bananas in America’: Pennsylvania representative. Medeline Dean highlighted Consumer Costs of Trump’s trade plan; Uses bananas in hot exchange
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik was placed on the spot on Thursday during a House Appropriation Committee meeting by representative Medelene Dean and a banana.A former stockbroker, Lootnik, was defending the tariff proposals of US President Donald Trump, arguing that he would teach American companies to become more self -sufficient. But the representative Dean challenged him with a simple example: bananas.“Americans, by the way, Luov bananas. We buy billions of them in a year. I love bananas. What is tariff on banana?” Dean asked.Lutnik replied that the banana tariff “would be the representative of countries that produce them,” he said “was usually 10 percent”.Dean reported that Walmart had already increased banana prices by 8 percent.Lutnik tried to assure the committee that prices would fall as countries signed new trade deals with the US, but Dean focused on the current realities.“But the cost is now on the American consumer, and now on businesses with confusion,” He said. ” Mr. Secretary, I believe you know better. I believe that you believe that a business deficit is nothing to fear. I believe you know that prediction, stability, is necessary for businesses. I wish you had shown this administration the truth. ,“There is no uncertainty that if you build in the US and produce your product in the US, there will be no tariff.”Dean quickly replied by holding a banana and said, “We can’t build bananas in America.”While bananas can be grown in air and southern Florida, the current supply is not enough to meet the demand in the US, where people eat an average of 26 pounds of bananas per year.Later, Dean shared the moment on X, saying that she was surprised to find herself “giving an economic lesson to the US Commerce Secretary”. He noticed, “Not everything can be made in America”The exchange reacted a lot of reactions online, in which many dean bananas to admire the use of bananas.
