Video Shows Marco Rubio Bashing Tariffs As 'Tax on Americans' Years Before Backing Trump's 'Liberation Day' Agenda

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is among the officials defending President Donald Trump's wide-ranging tariffs, saying on Friday that markets will recover after crashing as a result of the measures.

However, some were quick to pull clips showing Rubio criticizing them in the past when he was not part of the administration.

One of them was from the 2016 presidential campaign, when Rubio, then running to be the Republican candidate said "a tariff is a tax on Americans." "It isn't paid by the exporter. China is not going to pay the tariff, the buyer is going to pay the tariff," Rubio said back then.

Rubio delved further into the issue during a Republican debate, saying that "we need to be very careful with tariffs." "I think the better approach, the best thing we can do to protect ourselves against China economically is to make our economy stronger. It begins with tax reform. It continues with regulatory reform," he said.

Back to the present, Rubio said on Friday that markets would recover from their crash. "Businesses around the world, including in trade and global trade, they just need to know what the rules are," he claimed at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels. "Once they know what the rules are, they will adjust to those rules."

Rubio justified the impact on the stock market saying they crashed "because markets are based on the stock value of companies who today are embedded in modes of production that are bad for the United States."

Markets are crashing further on Friday after China announced it would impose reciprocal 34% levies on all U.S. products. The announcement, which continues to fuel fears of a global recession, led futures in all major U.S. stock indexes to expand their drops, with the S&P 500 dropping almost 3% after already plunging 4.8% on Thursday.

Nasdaq 100 futures were also trading close to 3% lower, with tech companies exposed to China bearing the brunt of the drop. Apple, Tesla and Nvidia were among those counting heavy losses.