Liberal Author Shreds Billionaire CNBC Guest: ‘I Cannot Believe What I’m Listening To’

Derek Thompson, a writer at The Atlantic, scorched billionaire investor Kyle Bass on Friday for predicting that President Donald Trump’s tariffs will ultimately benefit Americans in the long term.

“I cannot believe what I’m listening to,” said Thompson, who declared that he was getting “brutally honest” with host Kelly Evans on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.”

“I heard your last guest say if the economy shrinks, that’s good. If the stock market goes down, that’s good. If the housing market crashes, that’s good. If there’s a trade war, that’s good. When did the capital class get taken over by degrowther protectionists seeking 19th century autarky?”

Minutes earlier, Bass appeared on “Power Lunch” where he referred to Trump’s recent round of tariffs — which looped in islands uninhabited by humans that are home to penguins and seals — as “thoughtful” and argued that they’ll give the U.S. a “positive foundation for growth.”

He claimed that Trump — who has argued that markets will eventually “boom” despite stocks plummeting since his “Liberation Day” announcement — is trying to reset the “crazy price moves” by Congress and the Fed which caused a “cost of living crisis” for Americans.

“It’s difficult, it’s going to hurt but it’s akin to a controlled burn,” Bass told CNBC’s Brian Sullivan.

Later in the program, Evans referred to “Abundance,” Thompson’s new book with Ezra Klein that touches on millennials who believe that the “dream is gone” since they can’t afford a home and groceries.

“So aren’t you a little surprised to hear the globalist, the pro stock market types who are supposed to be at fault for all of this, now reading out of your book and saying we’re bringing prices back down?” Evans asked.

Thompson swiftly replied, “No. They’re crashing the economy. That’s very, very different than making housing affordable. If you want affordable housing, you need a job. If you crash the economy, you’re going to have unemployment.”

He added that young people lose their jobs first when waves of unemployment hit an economy.

“So if your job or if your plan is to crash the economy in the short term for the purpose of helping young people afford a house, you have got it totally backward,” Thompson stressed.

We Don’t Work For Billionaires. We Work For You.

Big money interests are running the government — and influencing the news you read. While other outlets are retreating behind paywalls and bending the knee to political pressure, HuffPost is proud to be unbought and unfiltered. Will you help us keep it that way? You can even access our stories ad-free.

You’ve supported HuffPost before, and we’ll be honest — we could use your help again. We won’t back down from our mission of providing free, fair news during this critical moment. But we can’t do it without you.

For the first time, we’re offering an ad-free experience to qualifying contributors who support our fearless journalism. We hope you’ll join us.

Support HuffPost

He later continued, “We can have a strategy that seeks to make more of what we need in the U.S. without trying to cut ourselves off from the entire global economy. I completely reject the idea that what Trump is pursuing is anything like abundance.”

<div class="js-react-hydrator" data-component-name="YouTube" data-component-id="3940" data-component-props="{"itemType":"video","index":18,"contentIndexByType":2,"contentListType":"embed","code":"

","type":"video","meta":{"author":"CNBC Television","author_url":"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrp_UI8XtuYfpiqluWLD7Lw","cache_age":86400,"description":"Derek Thompson, The Atlantic staff writer, joins CNBC’s ‘Power Lunch’ to discuss newly announced tariffs, how the American public feels about them, and more.","options":{"_cc_load_policy":{"label":"Closed captions","value":false},"_end":{"label":"End on","placeholder":"ex.: 11, 1m10s","value":""},"_start":{"label":"Start from","placeholder":"ex.: 11, 1m10s","value":""}},"provider_name":"YouTube","thumbnail_height":720,"thumbnail_url":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oRWswqmFl7Q/maxresdefault.jpg","thumbnail_width":1280,"title":"The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson: ‘Completely reject’ the idea that tariffs will lead to abundance","type":"video","url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRWswqmFl7Q","version":"1.0"},"flags":[],"enhancements":{},"fullBleed":false,"options":{"theme":"news","device":"desktop","editionInfo":{"id":"us","name":"U.S.","link":"https://www.huffpost.com","locale":"en_US"},"originalEdition":"us","isMapi":false,"isAmp":false,"isAdsFree":false,"isVideoEntry":false,"isEntry":true,"isMt":false,"entryId":"67f0af4ce4b0f761e0740218","entryPermalink":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/derek-thompson-billionaire-investor-cnbc-trump-tariffs_n_67f0af4ce4b0f761e0740218","entryTagsList":"donald-trump,tariffs,cnbc,kelly-evans,derek-thompson,@us_huffpost_now","sectionSlug":"politics","deptSlug":"politics-news","sectionRedirectUrl":null,"subcategories":"us-news","isWide":false,"headerOverride":null,"noVideoAds":false,"disableFloat":false,"isNative":false,"commercialVideo":{"provider":"custom","site_and_category":"us.politics","package":null},"isHighline":false,"vidibleConfigValues":{"cid":"60afc111dcf87c2cd2f5d8bf","overrides":{"front_page_top_videos":{"desktop":"60b64354b171b7444beaff4d","mobileweb":"60b64354b171b7444beaff4d"},"top_media":{"desktop":"60b8e6bdc5449357a7ada147","mobile":"60b8e701c5449357a7ada2ee","iphone":"60b8e643cdd90620331bb1f6","ipad":"60b8e643cdd90620331bb1f6","androidphone":"60b8e699c5449357a7ada04c","androidtablet":"60b8e699c5449357a7ada04c"},"anthology":{"desktop":"60b8e616cdd90620331bb0ba","mobile":"60b8e671c5449357a7ad9f66","iphone":"60b8e643cdd90620331bb1f6","ipad":"60b8e643cdd90620331bb1f6","androidphone":"60b8e699c5449357a7ada04c","androidtablet":"60b8e699c5449357a7ada04c"},"content":{"desktop":"60b8e616cdd90620331bb0ba","mobile":"60b8e671c5449357a7ad9f66","iphone":"60b8e643cdd90620331bb1f6","ipad":"60b8e643cdd90620331bb1f6","androidphone":"60b8e699c5449357a7ada04c","androidtablet":"60b8e699c5449357a7ada04c"}},"playerUpdates":{"5668ae6ee4b0b5e26955d6a6":"60d2472d9340d7032ad7e443","56aa41bae4b091744c0440d8":"60e869dc7c5f3b17b6741b81","5841b2b5cc52c716ec6e5a7f":"60b8e355cdd90620331ba185","58b5e2b8d85a10302feee895":"60b64316b171b7444beafdb2","58b74698f78ced31417819ae":"60b8e5bec5449357a7ad9b52","58b74ccecebcea57e2c3a3d1":"60b8e5eac5449357a7ad9ca5","58cff690d85a100b9992bc39":"60b8e616cdd90620331bb0ba","58cffb3fb6d9b972a49a3c9d":"60b8e643cdd90620331bb1f6","58cffdd74d96935d7d6ec180":"60b8e671c5449357a7ad9f66","58d03a84f78ced6518eb2fa7":"60b643c82e76be41f112735c","592edf20e0fa177b0c26f7fd":"60b8e699c5449357a7ada04c","5b35266b158f855373e28256":"60b64354b171b7444beaff4d","5c116f29f79c4171d82b7c2a":"60b64440b171b7444beb040b","5c1170fc600c9a697bf0c6b9":"60b646102e76be41f1127ffc","5c47791afa1b317df8ae0c4f":"60b8e6bdc5449357a7ada147","5c477987a6b48b35f164773d":"60b8e701c5449357a7ada2ee","5c4779ee943c3c2a64f28371":"60b8e747cdd90620331bb861","5c477a26fcd67b26879bc7c2":"60b8e788c5449357a7ada67b","5d8921a78c3ae845f366c9b6":"60ae7be5f3a7c13a30417ff9","58b98b00ba82aa39a6534321":"60d0de7c9340d7032ad1146c","58b9d14cb6d9b96c9ec32af3":"60d0dec19340d7032ad115a0","58cff8eccebcea42931e0436":"60d0e005b627221e9d819d44","592edf5de0fa177b0c26f95b":"60d0e38fb627221e9d81adcf","58cff72fd85a100b9992c112":"60d0e447b627221e9d81b0da","56b4d34fe4b022697697c400":"60d2472d9340d7032ad7e443","60b8e4c0c5449357a7ad957d":"60e869dc7c5f3b17b6741b81"}},"connatixConfigValues":{"defaultPlayer":"ff7fdddc-5441-4253-abc4-f12a33fad58b","clickToPlayPlayer":"d014396e-b366-4c17-aeac-3ce906fa3fd0","videoPagePlayer":"f010447b-d244-4111-a314-7b4542ae4145","verticalPlayer":"e58cb05a-0bc8-4210-9108-fea82726c065","stickyPlayerControl":"52ea1755-d601-4ad1-bccc-d8cce3f0e5da","stickyPlayer":"8055e9e5-3bda-4933-8d45-9ad814fb6e22","noAdsPlayer":"deeeda04-49cb-4a1d-ac6c-c388a685b58e"},"topConnatixThumnbailSrc":"https://img.connatix.com/1998b019-1583-4c0a-a9d8-15f97d464b94/1_th.jpg?crop=629:354,smart&width=629&height=354&format=jpeg&quality=60&fit=crop","customAmpComponents":[],"ampAssetsUrl":"https://amp.assets.huffpost.com","videoTraits":null,"positionInUnitCounts":{"buzz_head":{"count":0},"buzz_body":{"count":0},"buzz_bottom":{"count":0}},"positionInSubUnitCounts":{"article_body":{"count":11},"blog_summary":{"count":0},"before_you_go_content":{"count":0}},"connatixCountsHelper":{"count":1},"buzzfeedTracking":{"context_page_id":"67f0af4ce4b0f761e0740218","context_page_type":"buzz","destination":"huffpost","mode":"desktop","page_edition":"en-us"},"tags":[{"name":"Donald Trump","slug":"donald-trump","links":{"relativeLink":"topic/donald-trump","permalink":"https://www.huffpost.com/topic/donald-trump","mobileWebLink":"https://www.huffpost.com/topic/donald-trump"},"department":{"name":"Latest News","slug":"politics-news"},"section":{"title":"Politics","slug":"politics"},"topic":{"title":"Donald Trump","slug":"donald-trump","overridesSectionLabel":false},"url":"https://www.huffpost.com/news/topic/donald-trump"},{"name":"tariffs","slug":"tariffs","links":{"relativeLink":"topic/tariffs","permalink":"https://www.huffpost.com/topic/tariffs","mobileWebLink":"https://www.huffpost.com/topic/tariffs"},"url":"https://www.huffpost.com/topic/tariffs"},{"name":"CNBC","slug":"cnbc","links":{"relativeLink":"topic/cnbc","permalink":"https://www.huffpost.com/topic/cnbc","mobileWebLink":"https://www.huffpost.com/topic/cnbc"},"department":{"name":"Latest News","slug":"politics-news"},"section":{"title":"Media","slug":"media"},"topic":{"title":"CNBC","slug":"cnbc","overridesSectionLabel":false},"url":"https://www.huffpost.com/news/topic/cnbc"},{"name":"kelly evans","slug":"kelly-evans","links":{"relativeLink":"topic/kelly-evans","permalink":"https://www.huffpost.com/topic/kelly-evans","mobileWebLink":"https://www.huffpost.com/topic/kelly-evans"},"url":"https://www.huffpost.com/topic/kelly-evans"},{"name":"Derek Thompson","slug":"derek-thompson","links":{"relativeLink":"topic/derek-thompson","permalink":"https://www.huffpost.com/topic/derek-thompson","mobileWebLink":"https://www.huffpost.com/topic/derek-thompson"},"url":"https://www.huffpost.com/topic/derek-thompson"}],"isLiveblogLive":null,"isLiveblog":false,"backfillRelatedArticles":[],"cetUnit":"buzz_body","bodyAds":["

\r\n\r\n HPGam.cmd.push(function(){\r\n\t\treturn HPGam.render(\"inline-1\", \"entry_paragraph_1\", false, false);\r\n });\r\n\r\n","

\r\n\r\n HPGam.cmd.push(function(){\r\n\t\treturn HPGam.render(\"inline-2\", \"entry_paragraph_3\", false, false);\r\n });\r\n\r\n","

\r\n\r\n HPGam.cmd.push(function(){\r\n\t\treturn HPGam.render(\"inline-infinite\", \"repeating_dynamic_display\", false, false);\r\n });\r\n\r\n"],"adCount":0},"isCollectionEmbed":false}”>

[embedded content]