Evers Warns Trump Tariffs Will Harm Wisconsin

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers gives the 2025 budget address at the Wisconsin state Capitol building in Madison. Ruthie Hauge/The Capital Times

Gov. Tony Evers says he’s bracing for how President Donald Trump’s tariffs will affect Wisconsin, arguing Tuesday that it will hurt the state’s budget process and several key industries.

Speaking at a WisPolitics lunch event in downtown Madison on the day import taxes went into effect on goods from the United States’ top three trading partners, Evers said there are other ways to make trade fairer for America.

“This is not good for our country. Simple as that,” Evers said. “It sucks. It’s bad. It’s no good. I’m irritated.”

He argued that the tariffs would affect costs across industries in a way that would make it difficult to plan out the state budget. Evers proposed his own $119 billion budget last month, and GOP lawmakers will rewrite the proposal, which is expected to pass sometime this summer.

“Of course it’s going to impact our budget. Of course it’s going to impact the conversations that Republicans and Democrats have here. It’s going to impact every single Wisconsinite,” he said.

Last week, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said Republicans would work to pass a tax cut through the Legislature separate from the state budget. Evers called that idea “stupid” in light of rapid-fire changes out of Washington.

“When you do a budget, you really have to do expenditures and revenues at the same time,” he said. “It’s horrendous policy. When you don’t know what’s happening in Washington, D.C., and how this mess is going to play out, you’d lock things in for two days and then you’d be back, saying, ‘Well, we have to redo that.’”

At midnight on Tuesday, 25 percent tariffs on many goods from neighboring Canada and Mexico went into effect, as did a 20 percent tariff on Chinese goods.

Canada immediately responded with a retaliatory tariff of its own on American goods. Speaking to reporters after the event, Evers said the dairy industry stands to lose from the trade war.

“Let’s just talk about cheese. We won’t be able to sell [in Canada], and on top of that, we’ll be punished for not doing that,” he said. “Now, is that a big deal for Wisconsin? Not everybody eats cheese, right? But it’s a $1.8 billion industry, and it’s going to be just crushed.”

Evers said it was a “difficult day” for Wisconsin, and said his administration would continue to join lawsuits against White House actions that he feels harm the state. But he especially blamed Congress for not standing up to Trump, saying that there is “no legislative branch of our country right now.”

“If Congress thought through this for two minutes, they’d understand how bad tariffs are, and it’s going to be hell to pay,” he said.

Evers warns of education funding cuts, won’t endorse in DPI race

In his remarks, Evers also declined to back a candidate for his former position leading the Department of Public Instruction, or DPI, and warned about how federal cuts might affect education in the state. In his budget proposal, Evers called for $3.1 million for education and $800 million for the Universities of Wisconsin System.

Many DPI workers are in federally funded positions, Evers said, and the state receives some reimbursement for special education.

“So does that mean they’re gone? Probably,” he said. “And does that mean that kids won’t get the services they need? Probably. And so everything is a moving target at this point in time.”

He repeatedly declined to endorse a candidate in the state superintendent race, in which incumbent Jill Underly, who is backed by Democrats and unions, will face off against Brittany Kinser, a voucher school proponent backed by Republicans.

“It’ll be a race, and whoever wins, wins. I’m not supporting either candidate,” Evers said, noting that he hasn’t endorsed a candidate in the past, either.

But he shared some criticisms of Underly’s records, including recent revelations that testing standards had been lowered, resulting in improved scores.

“My issue there was not necessarily what the outcome was. It was, there was very little or no communication before that happened, that’s the issue,” he said. “Something like that should have been vetted in some fashion, publicly, so that people know what was coming. And that would have worked better.”

But speaking to reporters after the event, he said he’d “probably veto” a Republican-backed bill to restore previous testing standards.

“I have a very strong belief that it’s an independent agency, and they can make those decisions,” he said. “So having the Legislature suddenly say, ‘Well, we’re the experts here, and this is what we think the cut scores should be,’ I think that’s wrongheaded.”

Evers blasts Trump tariffs, warns they’ll harm Wisconsin was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.