Trump Unveils New Steel Tariffs: The People Who Brokered Prior Deals With China ‘Should Be Ashamed’

President Donald Trump revealed a new set of tariffs for steel and aluminum imports – 25 percent for steel, 10 percent for aluminum – that are engineered to jumpstart the growth of steel and aluminum companies in the U.S.

“They used to be a lot bigger but they are going to be a lot bigger again,” Trump said in a room of lawmakers and workers who stand to benefit from the new taxes.

“The big aluminum companies in the united States… have been very unfairly treated by bad policy, by bad trade deals by other countries. They have been horribly treated by other countries. And they have not been properly represented. More importantly, because of that, our workers and our country have not been properly represented. So we are going to build our steel industry back. And we’re going to build our aluminum industry back,” Trump said.

After calling on a few workers to speak about how much they are thankful for the new policies, Trump talked a big game about China.

“When I was in China I said listen, President Xi [Jinping], I said I don’t blame you, if you are able to get away with making almost $500 billion a year off our country, how could I blame you?” Trump said. “Somebody agreed to these deals. And those people should be ashamed of themselves what they have let happen.”

“When it comes to a time when our country can’t make aluminum and steel and somebody said it before and I will tell you, you almost don’t have much of a country,” he added. “Because without steel and aluminum, your country is not the same. We need it. We need it even for defense. If you think. We need it for defense. We need great steel makers. Great aluminum makers for defense.”

Listen to more of the ramble above, via Fox News.

[image via screengrab]