Walter Masterson calls himself a comedian from New York. I suppose in the loosest terms, he’s right. If he thinks the situations he finds himself in, interviewing MAGA voters and educating them about certain things, are funny, then he reckons he’s a comedian.

He looks more like a teacher to me. After all, it’s not like he’s laughing in their faces. Oh, and Walter could be, let me tell you that much.

In one recent such encounter, Walter speaks with a merchandise vendor in a Trump hat in Atlanta. Right from the outset, you can tell that the man is not only voting for Trump, but that he’s pretty excited about upcoming economic policies. Presumably, he believes that the policies Trump wants to implement will benefit him.

But when the subject of tariffs comes up, it quickly becomes apparent that he has no idea what the concept even means. In fact, after initially arguing with his host and another man on the street about who even pays tariffs, his own logic kicks in and he realizes his error.

It’s tempting to think that he may have changed his vote, but it’s doubtful.

As a matter of fact, it’s doubtful that most people, unless they’ve dealt with importing goods before like this man clearly has, would ever come around to any kind of understanding. Trump voters begin from the perspective that Trump is correct, and it’s virtually impossible to make someone understand that they’ve been fooled.

Especially if they start with “I’m voting for the man that’s going to take America back, baby! Donald J. Trump, man. Let’s go! Let’s go!”

No stranger to these kinds of interactions, Masterson asks the vendor what his biggest issue is as far as determining who he’ll vote for. The answer is predictable, given the messaging the GOP and Trump have been employing. “My biggest issue is probably going to be inflation because I’m a business owner and it hit me hard,” he says.

“I sell t-shirts and all that stuff,” the man says. “So your t-shirts are made in the USA?” asks Masterson. Walter looks incredulous as the man contradicts his earlier declaration about “taking America back” when he says, “No my blanks — no, see that’s the problem. They’re not [made in America], because a blank in the USA costs me $20. I can’t afford that.” He adds, “See, that’s the thing Trump’s talking about, manufacturing. All these companies have sold out, over to the sweatshops. If we tax them, hit tariffs, the same item they’re making over there will cost the same to make over here.”

That sounds patriotic and dare I say compassionate, maybe even makes sense… Until you apply even the tiniest bit of logic to the statement.

The excited man is correct that the items will then cost the same. But the cost will be at the point of purchase, not of manufacturing. We can’t make laws that make it more expensive in other countries to manufacture things. There’s not a law that any country can make that affects the costs of foreign manufacturers.

Masterson continues in that vein: “China doesn’t pay the tariffs, we do, when they come in.” “No, it doesn’t work like that,” the man insists. “No, whoever’s importing is paying the taxes, man. That’s the point of it.”

It’s pretty frustrating how close this guy is to getting it at this point.

There’s just one thing left to clarify, as far as I’m concerned. We need to find out who this guy thinks the importer is. Because China (or whichever country; China’s just an example) is the exporter. And again, we don’t get to make laws about what things cost in other countries. We can’t make it more expensive to export anything.

Masterson tries again: “Like, if I’m buying a thousand shirts from China and there’s a tariff on it, I’m paying the tariff,” he says. Insistent, the man says “Well, no, whoever’s getting it imported in is going to pay the tariff.”

At this point, the man has actually said it from his own mouth, and still doesn’t realize it. “Whoever’s getting it imported” is the American company that wants the product to resell in America. So now we’ve established that it’s somebody here in the USA, not China, that’s paying extra. Let’s bring in Masterson’s friend Jolly:

JOLLY: I sell you something for $10 right and then you’re going to sell it to him for $20… But then I make you pay me $15 for it. Are you still going to sell it to him for 20?

VENDOR: Am I going to sell it to him for 20…

JOLLY: If I raise the price by $5?

VENDOR: Oh, yeah… It’s going to have to go up. Yeah, the consumer foots the bill.

JOLLY: Have a good day.

The conversation moves on to sales taxes, which he’s also not thrilled about, and the full-length video can be seen here (It’s a little over an hour, as he talks to a lot of different people).

But this clip covers the exchange with just this man, who in the end concedes, “Yeah, I don’t agree with that. I don’t like that. I’m not for that.” Gosh, if only he’d had someone to explain it to him before he voted for it.

Watch the clip: