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President Donald Trump defended his administration’s tariffs on Tuesday ahead of November’s midterm elections, telling “Fox & Friends” in an interview that they are bringing “a fortune” into the United States.
Trump made the remark as his administration is set to impose new tariffs of 10% and 12.5% on imports from 60 trading partners beginning Friday as a temporary global tariff expires.
“Are you worried that the tariffs that you put forward over the last couple of days will hurt the economy as they adjust in bringing manufacturing home?” the president was asked by host Brian Kilmeade.
“No, because it’s bringing hundreds of billions of dollars,” Trump responded. “I was at General Motors yesterday. They have the best year. They have the most trucks, the most cars. The tariffs have saved General Motors. What I’ve done to the auto business, what I’ve done to the chip business. We have chip companies now making, building hundreds of billions of dollars worth of chip plants in Arizona.”
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION UNVEILS NEW TARIFFS ON 60 TRADING PARTNERS AS TEMPORARY DUTIES EXPIRE
“We are going to end up with 40 to 50% of the chip business from nothing in a year and a half from now,” the president added.
Trump also said, “It’s a shame that I have to go a harder way for the tariffs because the Supreme Court, in a very close decision, you know, ruled against me.”
The Supreme Court in February had struck down Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs of 10% to 50% that were imposed last year. In response, Trump implemented a temporary 10% global tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 that expires at 12:01 a.m. ET Friday.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced Thursday that the new tariffs, imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, will take effect immediately after the temporary duties expire.
TRUMP UNVEILS PHASED TARIFFS ON GENERIC DRUGS TO BOOST US PRODUCTION
Canada, Mexico, India and the United Kingdom are among the trading partners that will face a 10% tariff. Taiwan and the European Union, meanwhile, are slated to face a 12.5% tariff.
“Now I have other ways of doing the same thing. But it’s a more cumbersome process, you know, the way of doing it. But the tariffs have made this country a fortune,” Trump said. “It made the country rich. And I stopped eight wars, I would say five of them because of tariffs. The threat of tariffs stopped India and Pakistan from going into a nuclear war. The threat of tariffs stopped numerous other countries from going to war. These tariffs — it’s the greatest thing. And only the really smart people or the people that are nonpolitical and that get it, talk about it. The Democrats know how good it’s been.”
“We have the hottest car business. We’re right now building more car plants than at any time in our history. Toyota just left Mexico. They’re building, they just announced, they’re building a $12 billion worth of plants in the United States,” Trump said. “All because they want to avoid tariffs. They have no tariffs if they build their product here.”
The Trump administration has decided not to extend the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and will instead pursue independent trade deals with Canada and Mexico.
When asked Tuesday if he was looking to update the USMCA, Trump said: “I don’t care. I mean I don’t really want to, I’d rather have, I’d rather be independent. Here’s the thing. Mexico and Canada need us. We don’t need them. The deal is important for them. It’s not important for us.”
FOX Business’ Michael Sinkewicz, Eric Revell, Edward Lawrence and Sophia Compton contributed to this report.
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