Trump on 145% China Tariffs: ‘That’s Good; They Deserve It’

MORAN: “Well, you said something a couple of weeks ago that struck me. You said, concerning the tariffs, which economists say are going to raise prices. You said ‘hang tough. It won’t be easy.’ You said that to the American people. Is that what Americans should expect, some hard times?”

Trump: “I’ve said that during my campaign. Look, we won a campaign by a lot. We won all seven swing states. We won the popular vote by a lot. You know, we had a tremendous campaign. I said all these things during my campaign. I said you’re going to have a transition period. We’ve been ripped off by every country all over the world. They’re laughing at us. They thought we were stupid people and we were. And I said that’s not going to happen. We’re not going to let that happen.”

MORAN: “But hard times? Hard times are ahead?”

Trump: “I don’t think so.”

MORAN: “Hang tough.”

Trump: “I think great times are ahead. Look, since I came in, gasoline is down. Groceries are down. Egg prices are down. Many things are down, just about everything. You know, you don’t have the drop in fuel and energy and oil like we did. I took it from maybe $3.20, maybe more than that, down into a low — a much lower number. When you have that kind of a drop, you’re not going to have inflation.”

MORAN: “Not now. But it’s the tariffs, right? We still have 145 percent tariffs on Chinese.”

Trump: “Well, why is it —“

MORAN: “Your Treasury secretary said we basically have an embargo on China.”

Trump: “Look, you’re trying to say something’s going to happen, Terry —“

MORAN: “No, no — okay, well —“

Trump: “Nothing’s going to happen.”

MORAN: “You know business, I want to ask you —“

Trump: “I do know business.”

MORAN: “So, 145 percent tariffs on China, and that is —“

Trump: “That’s good. That’s good.”

MORAN: “— basically an embargo.”

Trump: “They deserve it.”

MORAN: “It’ll raise prices on everything —“

Trump: “And they deserve it.”

MORAN: “— from electronics to clothing to building houses.”

Trump: “You don’t know that. You don’t know whether or not China is going to eat it.”

MORAN: “That’s mathematics.”

Trump: “China probably will eat those tariffs, but at 145, they basically can’t do much business with the United States and they were making from us $1 trillion a year. They were ripping us off like nobody’s ever ripped us off. And by the way, we have other countries that were just as bad. If you look at the European Union, it was terrible what they’ve done to us. Every country, almost every country in the world was ripping us off. They’re not doing that anymore.”