Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross dismissed concerns about Americans paying higher prices for cars as a result of President Trump's steel tariff as "no big deal" in comments that are widely being slammed as "tone deaf" and "out of touch."
Ross argued that one ton of steel costs about $700, and there is about one ton of steel in a car, "so 25 percent on that would be one half of 1 percent price increase on the typical $35,000 car. So it's no big deal."
People weren't sold:
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Additionally, while the average price of a new car is around $33,000, most Americans cannot afford that.
To be fair, to Ross it probably is crumbs: He is worth $860 million, and trotted out to Trump's State of the Union in custom $500 slippers emblazoned with the Commerce Department's logo. Watch more of his comments on CNBC below. Jeva Lange
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