President Trump's Agriculture Secretary was left red-faced on CNN after being asked why the White House was imposing tariffs on a remote island populated by penguins. Brooke Rollins was grilled by Jake Tapper on the channel's State of the Union programme, where he asked the 52-year-old to explain why the Trump administration was imposing a 10% tariff on the Heard and McDonald Islands.

When Mr Tapper pointed out that the islands, which are between Madagascar and Antarctica, have "zero human inhabitants" Ms Rollins struggled for an answer. She said: "I mean, well, that, come on, Jake, obviously. Here's the bottom line: we live under a tariff regime from other countries."

After the anchor began to point out that the Heard and McDonald Islands did not impose tariffs on the United States, Ms Rollins said: "Whatever".

She went on: "Listen, the people that are leading this are serious, intentional, patriotic, the smartest people I've ever worked with. I did not come up with the formulas [behind the tariffs]. I'm the Ag Secretary, I studied agriculture at Texas A&M.

Finishing her response, she said: "I have no doubt that I speak on behalf of President Trump when he would say he has the utmost confidence in the team, and what they have built, and what they have put together. And we are unleashing a new golden age, and we will see an economy that will benefit not just every corner of America, but our farmers and our ranchers and the people that have been left behind for far too long by both Republicans and Democrats."

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was also asked about the tariff on the islands on the CBS show Face the Nation. He was asked whether the administration "used AI" to come up with the programme of import taxes.

Laughing, he replied: "If you leave anything off the list the country's that basically try to arbitrage America go through those countries to us."

Mr Lutnick claimed that after Mr Trump imposed tariffs on China in 2018, Beijing exported to the US via its allies, using "loopholes" to get around the US import taxes.