Lutnick: Trump "felt horrible" about impact of China tariffs

What they're saying: "The Chinese tariffs caused pain last month, I agree, and I feel horrible about it and the president felt horrible about it, but we had to fight the fight," Lutnick told Axios' Mike Allen at an Axios Building the Future event in Washington.

• "The president has to stand strong, and you can't fix things in a day, and that's still going, but I would expect that prices in America will be unaffected."

Catch up quick: Trump imposed an escalating series of tariffs on China this year that eventually reached 145%, effectively putting an embargo on trade with one of the top U.S. commercial partners.

• A temporary deal struck this month reduced tariffs on China to 30%.

The intrigue: Lutnick, as he's done of late, insisted that consumers don't pay for tariffs.

• But when he asked the event audience if anyone had personally felt the effect of tariffs, he got a resounding "YES" from the crowd.
• Lutnick, however, insisted that the tariffs have already been in place for weeks but haven't shown up for the consumer, citing consistently mild inflation reports.