President Donald Trump said he’s “not backing down” on tariffs.
“The big thing that I’m focused on now is trade. I have to straighten out trade deals,” Trump told host Maria Bartiromo in an interview broadcast on Fox News Sunday morning. “… We have the worst trade deals in the world; we lose money with everybody. … We’re going to make it reciprocal, we’re going to make them fair.”
Trump continued: “I will tell you, you don’t know about this, but every country is calling every day saying, ‘Let’s make a deal, let’s make a deal.’ So it’s going to all work out.”
He also repeated a claim that the current economy “may be the greatest economy we’ve ever had.”
Trump’s comments come amid tensions on trade with China, Europe, Mexico, and Canada, all of which retaliated after Trump announced steel, aluminum, and agricultural tariffs last month.
American lawmakers and international leaders have criticized Trump’s decision to impose tariffs, a new wave of which will go into effect July 6th to target Chinese industrial goods.
“Would it be better to actually have our allies together to go against China, instead of pushing back on our allies?” Bartiromo asked.
But Trump doubled down on his previous comments against US allies and his decision to impose tariffs on them.
“The European Union is possibly as bad as China, just smaller, OK? It’s terrible what they do to us,” Trump said, adding, “I love those countries, Germany, and all of the countries. Scotland. … But they treat us very badly. They treat us very unfairly.”
Trump’s chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow has said the measures are a tactic to bring other leaders to the table to work out better deals.
Meanwhile, economists say Trump’s protectionist policies are comparable to economic policies from the 1980s policies, which overall harmed the US economy, raised costs for American consumers, and failed to reduce the US trade deficit.
Watch clips of the interview below:
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