Trump Tells CNBC He’s ‘Ready’ to Impose Tariffs on Every Chinese Good Imported to US

CNBC anchor Joe Kernen interviewed President Donald Trump this week in an exclusive that aired on Squawk Box Friday morning, that focused heavily on the economy and only lightly on politics. During that interview, the President quintupled down on his tariff and trade war policy.

President Trump said he is “ready” to impose more tariffs on China to “level the playing field.”

“I’m ready to go to 500,” he said.

That’s $500 billion, and means the President is saying he’s prepared to impose tariffs on more imports than he already has.

The President began his explanation, in answer to a prompt from Kernen that the economy is “hot” right now, by suggesting his trade war and domestic economic policy are working.

“What I really am happy about is, a lot of cash is coming back in through the billions and trillions of dollars, as you know, that was overseas, where companies were locked and they couldn’t get it back,” he said. “Now it’s coming back hundreds of millions of dollars at a clip, and also, companies are coming back to our country. We have record numbers of companies coming back in, they’re coming back—they’re pouring back in.”

The President expressed some concern over the Fed raising rates but indicated that he was leaving those decisions up to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. He segued from that back into trade.

“I don’t like all of this work that goes into doing what we’re doing. You look at the Euro, you look at what’s going on with the EU and they are not doing what we are doing and we already have somewhat of a disadvantage, although I am turning that into an advantage,” he said.

“You know last year and for years we have been losing $150 billion dollars with the EU nations with the European union and they are making money easy and their currency is falling,” he continued. “In China, their currency is dropping like a rock and our currency is going up and I have to tell you it puts us at a disadvantage.”

In other words, our currency gains are bad for the trade war. “Basically, President Trump just said if our currency gets too strong, ‘it hurts in my efforts to cut down the trade deficit and to export more,” said Kernen, characterizing Trump’s remarks on Squawk Box after the interview aired.

Trump said he was saying now exactly what he would say as a private citizen and didn’t care about any political fallout “I see China where, I mean look at what’s happening with their currency, it is dropping like a rock,” he added.

Kernen replied that this was “partly because some of the trade…”

Trump again indicated it was his trade war working. “Well it’s also because I think I’m helping, OK. You want to know the truth, because I’m doing something, we’re going to you know, we’re going to level out the playing field” he said.

Kernen asked if Trump was seeing “signs, some glimmers” that the tariffs are working punitively to force trading partners in line.

“Tremendous hope,” said Trump. “100%.”

Kernen also pointed out that former Trump adviser Steve Bannon said this week that China was “scared” because of the trade war.

“Yeah. I don’t want them to be scared. I want them to do well,” he said. :I really like President Xi a lot, but it was very unfair, so I raised 50. We’re down 500. Now some people would say $375 billion. I’m not talking about million. I’m not talking about pennies. I’m talking about – we’re down $375 billion, but other estimates could say 507, it doesn’t matter,” he explained, referring to the trade deficit. “We’re down a tremendous amount. I raised 50, and they matched us. I said, ‘You don’t match us. You can’t match us because otherwise we’re always going to be behind the 8-ball.'”

So far, the administration has imposed tariffs on approximately $35 to $50 billion of Chinese imports. “I raised 50” as the President is quoted above. China responded in kind with taxes on about the same amount of U.S. goods. “They matched us” as the President put it. Trump estimated the total deficit about $500 billion, so Kernen asked if he was willing to go the full monty.

“Would you ever get to 500, though?” Kernen asked.

“I’m ready to go to 500,” he said.

The President is saying he’s prepared to take the trade war with China all the way, and impose tariffs on $500 billion of Chinese imports, or about 10 times the current amount, even if they continue to respond in kind.

Kerned indicated that such dramatic action could have a negative effect on our economy. “What if the stock market were to go down?”

“well, if it does, it does,” said Trump.

The President even indicated that the effect on the midterms of a downturning economy weren’t on his mind. “Look, I’m not doing this for politics,” he said.

He also said that the trade deficit was simply the product of previous presidents never taking action, in a rather lengthy remark, quoted below.

“We have been ripped off by China for a long time and I told that to President Xi. I said, ‘How did this ever happen?’ And you know what their answer is? Because I deal with the highest echelons of China. One of the great people of China said, “There was never anybody to talk to in the United States. We would put on a trade barrier, where you couldn’t sell cars, or you couldn’t sell beef, or you couldn’t sell your farm products. We would put it on, and nobody would talk to us in the United States, so we said, ‘Hey, that’s great!’ Then we’d put on another one. We’d put on a tariff on cars – 25% – and you’d charge us virtually nothing – 2.5%. But they don’t pay it. So we would do this and nobody would talk. We’d start off at a lower number. We’d raise it, we’d raise it. Nobody would ever complain until you came along.” Me. And they said, “Now you’re doing more than complaining. We don’t like what you’re doing.” You know, they think I’m doing maybe too much, but of course they’re going to think that. But for many years – and I’m not just saying Obama. I’m saying Bush, and I’m saying long before, they had nobody. And it’s very interesting because I actually asked them the question, “So we’re down 507 – recently – we’re down $507 billion in trade deficits. How did it happen?” And they told me, ‘Nobody ever complained. Nobody ever talked to us.’

Transcript via CNBC.

So in the trade war, the President is prepared to go all the way to 500, and, as CNBC put it in analysis after the interview, to use the dollar as “a weapon in the President’s trade war”, in both cases even supposing there is a negative effect domestically.

Watch the clip above, courtesy of CNBC. (Full interview here.)

[Featured image via screengrab]

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Follow Caleb Howe (@CalebHowe) on Twitter

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