Trump Confronted By Reporter On White House Lawn Over Blizzard Of Lawsuits On Tariffs
A reporter confronted President Donald Trump on the White House lawn over the blizzard of lawsuits that states have filed against his tariff policies.
Trump’s tariff policies have roiled global markets, wreaked havoc on stocks, tanked his approval rating, and now have prompted a dozen states to file suit against the Trump administration. News broke Thursday that the states of Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, and Vermont filed suit to challenge Trump’s authority to impose the import taxes.
The president spoke to reporters on the South Lawn as he departed for the funeral of Pope Francis Friday morning, and deflected when challenged about the lawsuits:
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And Iran, I think, is going very well. We’ll see what happens. We’re working on plenty of things that shouldn’t be worked on because none of this stuff should have happened.
This should have been taken place by Biden. It should have been fixed by Biden, but he couldn’t do it. Nor could he come close to doing it.
So, anyway, we’re going to Rome to pay our respects, and we’ll be leaving that same day. We’ll be coming back home tomorrow night. And I’ll see some of you over there. Otherwise, I’ll see you on television.
REPORTER: You said you spoke with President Xi. Have you spoken to him since the tariffs? When did you last speak to him?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don’t want to comment on that, but I’ve spoken to him many times, yeah.
REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) — from Japan —
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: From Japan, I’m getting along very well with Japan. We’re very close to a deal.
REPORTER: Will you be meeting with the —
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I’ll be meeting with the Italian — yes. Your Prime Minister?
REPORTER: No, with President Zelensky.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Oh, it’s possible.
REPORTER: How would you and the first lady remember Pope Francis?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Very well. Good man. He loved the world, actually. And he was just a good man. I met him twice. I thought he was a fantastic kind of a guy.
REPORTER: You told Time Magazine that President Xi called you. When did that happen and what did you discuss?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I’ll let you know at the appropriate time. Let’s see if we can make a deal.
REPORTER: Any updates on the Witkoff Putin meeting, sir?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They’re meeting with Putin right now as we speak. And we have a lot of things going on. And I think, in the end, we’re going to end up with a lot good deals, including tariff deals and trade deals. We’re going make our country rich, but we’re gonna try and get out of war so that we can save 5,000 people a week.
And that’s what my aim is. I want to save 5 thousand young men. They happen to be mostly Ukrainian, Russian. 5,000 young Ukrainian and Russian men and that’s that’s a big honor if I could do it.
I think I think we’re pretty close (crosstalk) No deadline, I just want to do it as fast as possible.
REPORTER: 12 states have sued you over your tariff plan, what do you think of those who voted for you but–?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I think the tariff plan is doing very well. We’re resetting the table. We’re going to make our country very rich. Very, very rich, it’s already happening. Thank you very much.
Watch above via Pool.
