‘Prices Could Go Up’: Trump Admits Tariffs Might Worsen Inflation, But Promises They’ll ‘Make Our Country a Fortune’

President Donald Trump admitted that the sweeping tariffs his administration is implementing might temporarily drive up prices during a press conference in the Oval Office on Thursday.

Asked if consumers should expect prices to go up, Trump initially replied “Not necessarily,” before arguing that “what will go up is jobs, the jobs will go up tremendously.”

After he finished, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked him asked him who voters should “hold responsible” for inflation after the tariffs go into effect.

“I think what’s going to go up is jobs are going to go up, and prices could go up somewhat short-term, but prices will also go down. And I think the farmers are going to be helped by this very much because product is being dumped into our country and our farmers are getting hurt very badly by the last administration,” answered Trump. “The last administration hated our farmers, like at a level that I’ve never seen before. I think our farmers are going to be helped, jobs are going to be helped, but our farmers are going to be help, our manufacturers are going to be helped. And again, if somebody wants to come in — including the car companies — if they want to come in and build car plants, they’ll do it without tariffs and therefore prices won’t go up. There could be some short-term disturbance, but long-term, it’s going to, it’s going to make our country a fortune.”

“So Americans should prepare for some short-term pain?” followed up Collins.

“No, you said that, I didn’t say that,” shot back Trump as Collins pointed out he had admitted they might cause prices to go up.

“Let’s see what happens. Nobody really knows what is going to happen other than: We know that jobs are going to be produced at levels that we haven’t seen before,” asserted Trump. “We know that, we think interest rates are going to ultimately be coming down because of things that happen, and they go hand in hand with the tariffs. But we think that we think that the prices for some things, many thingsm it could be all things will go down — ultimately will go down.”

Watch above via Fox News.